CJ.CUTCLEFFE 
HYNE 


/: 


•  *.' 


ATOMS    OF    EMPIRE 


.  OP  CAtff.  UBHA1Y.  LOS  ANGELES 


ATOMS    OF    EMPIRE 


BY 


C.  J.  CUTCLIFFE  HYNE 

Author  of 

"Adventures  of  Captain  Kettle,"  "  McTodd"  "Thompson's  Progress" 
etc.,  etc. 


Nefo  ffotfe 
THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON  :   MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
1904 

All  rights  reserved 


COPTEIGHT,  1904, 

BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotypcd.     Published  November,  1904. 


Nortooott 

J.  S.  Cashing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Ca 
Norwood,  Maes.,  U.S.A. 


CONTENTS 

PAGI 

I.    THE  BAIT 1 

II.    RUN  DOWN 27 

III.  THE  FINGER  OF  HANKIN 41 

IV.  THE  CHOLERA  SHIP 65 

V.    THE  HERMIT 80 

VI.     THE  LIZARD 98 

VII.     HELD  UP 114 

VIII.    SHOT 130 

IX.    THE  CONSUMPTIVE 145 

X.  THE  PLACE  OF  THE  SACRED  BO-TREE        .        .  164 

XI.  THE  MUMMY  OF  THOMPSON-PR  ATT     .        .        .  174 

XII.     THE  LYNCHERS 193 

XIII.  THE  FASCINATING  MRS.  WHITEHEAD        .        .  212 

XIV.  THE  FIRE 221 

XV.  THE  KID        ....  ,  .  <        .        .        .237 

XVI.  THE  RENEGADE                                                      ,  259 


THE  BAIT 

"  WHAT  on  earth  does  the  Chief  have  an  ani 
mal  like  this  Padgett  to  dine  in  Government 
House  for  ?  "  asked  Day ton-Philipps,  querulously. 
"  I  expected  to  rough  it,  of  course,  when  I  came 
out  here  to  the  Coast,  because  they  promised  us 
active  service,  but  hang  me  if  ever  I  expected 
to  rough  it  at  the  Governor's  dinner-table  with 
a  missionary-thing  like  that.  Why,  the  fellow 
hadn't  got  an  aitch  to  his  name ;  he  stoked  with 
his  knife  all  the  time ;  and  when  he  got  a  fresh 
stock  of  perspiration  on  his  forehead  —  0  my 
aunt !  he  was  too  awful  for  anything." 

Forbes,  the  Colonial  Secretary,  fanned  himself 
in  his  long-sleeved  Madeira  chair,  and  suggested 
lazily  that  Dayton-Philipps  had  been  taken  out 
of  lavender  too  soon,  and  sent  out  into  the  warm, 
wide  world  too  early.  "  We're  a  primitive  people, 
we  Coasters,"  said  Forbes.  "  If  a  man  has  a  white 
skin  and  a  dress  coat,  we  ask  him  to  dinner. 
You're  too  fastidious." 

"  Rot ! "  said  Dayton-Philipps.  "  And,  besides, 
the  Padgett  person  hadn't  a  dress  coat." 

"  Oh,  of  course,  I  was  speaking  figuratively. 

B  1 


2  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

Being  a  padre  of  sorts  —  I  forget  what  his  fancy 
religion  is  called :  never  heard  of  it  before  —  being 
a  padre,  he  naturally  wears  his  official  cloth.  I 
saw  you  didn't  like  him  at  dinner.  But  you  were 
very  good  ;  you  swallowed  down  what  you  wanted 
to  say ;  in  fact,  you  behaved  quite  nicely." 

"  I  never  wanted  to  kick  a  man  so  much  in  my 
life.  He  insulted  you  ;  he  said  your  department 
was  corrupt.  He  insulted  the  Governor ;  said 
practically  that  he  was  a  disgrace  to  West  Africa. 
And  he  insulted  the  other  two  men  skilfully  and 
rudely.  As  you  all  sat  tight  and  tried  to  look 
as  if  you  liked  it,  when  it  came  to  my  turn  I  just 
followed  your  lead." 

"  He  called  you  a  hired  butcher  of  innocents, 
didn't  he  ? ."  asked  the  Colonial  Secretary,  with 
sly  malice. 

"  It  was  worse  than  that.     Never  mind,  though 

—  I   only  got  my   ordinary   share.      But    what 
amazes  me  is,  why  did  we  stand  it  ?     Of  course  I 
couldn't  buck  after  all  you  big  men  had  given  me 
a  lead ;  but  what  I  couldn't  understand  was,  why 
should  the  Chief  swallow  it  down,  when  one  good 
square  snub  would  have  shut  the  bounder  up  per 
manently,  and  let  the  rest  of  us  do  the  talking." 

"  His  Excellency  the  Governor,"  said  Forbes, 
"  has  to  play  to  the  gallery.  Uneasy  lies  the 
head  that  wears  a  —  well,  a  Governor's  helmet. 
Especially  a  West  African  Governor's.  If  a  man 
wants  to  make  any  sort  of  a  mark  here,  and  bag 

—  say  —  a  K.C.M.G.,  he's  got  to  put  on  steam  and 


THE   BAIT  3 

hurry,  or  else  the  climate  will  step  in  and  bag 
him  first.  My  faith,  though,  some  fellows  have 
luck !  Here's  his  present  Excellency  not  been 
back  from  England  a  fortnight,  and  this  chance 
comes  slick  in  his  way." 

"Let's  see,"  said  Dayton-Philipps,  "you  were 
Acting  Governor,  weren't  you,  whilst  he  was 
away  at  home  on  leave  ?  " 

"  I  was,"  said  Forbes,  "  and  knew  exactly  what 
was  needed,  but  never  had  a  ghost  of  an  oppor 
tunity  of  getting  it  through.  It  wasn't  from 
want  of  enterprise,  either.  I'm  as  keen  on  doing 
my  duty  to  the  Empire  —  and  earning  my  corre 
sponding  step  in  the  Service — as  any  of  my 
neighbours.  Then  the  Governor  comes  back, 
bucked-up  and  rosy  from  home,  and  the  thing 
might  have  been  pre-arranged,  it's  so  handy  for 
him.  It's  nine  to  one  it  comes  off,  and  then  he'll 
get  the  credit.  I've  slipped  back  into  my  old 
berth  as  Colonial  Secretary,  and  all  that  will 
come  in  my  way  will  be  a  lot  of  extra  work  and 
a  lot  of  exposure,  by  which  I  shall  certainly 
scoop  a  good  many  extra  doses  of  fever,  and  it  is 
not  improbable  that  —  as  I  can't  be  spared  for 
home-leave  now  —  I  shall  peg  out  here  in  harness." 

"  Oh,  rot !  you'll  not  earn  a  funeral  this  time." 

"Well,  I  hope  not.  But  anyway,  it's  a  sure 
thing  I  don't  get  any  of  the  plum.  There's  one 
and  undivided,  and  it  goes  to  the  head  of  the 
Colony  for  the  time  being,  in  the  ordinary  course 
of  routine.  Have  another  whisky-and-soda  ?  " 


4  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

"  Not  for  me,"  said  Dayton-Philipps.  "  Man 
wants  a  very  clear  head  if  he's  to  follow  what 
you  C.O.  fellows  mean  when  you're  pleased  to 
be  enigmatical.  In  fact,  I'm  hanged  if  I  can 
make  out  what  you've  been  driving  at  since 
we've  been  sitting  here." 

Now  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  Colonial  Sec 
retary  was  very  naturally  annoyed  at  the  course 
of  recent  events.  The  commercial  fate  of  the 
colony  had  been  for  two  or  three  years  hanging 
in  the  balance.  To  the  trained  mind,  which 
could  see  beneath  the  surface,  it  was  easy  to 
grasp  the  fact  that  the  missing  cog  had  arrived, 
which  would,  if  properly  used,  set  the  machinery 
of  state  triumphantly  advancing  again.  And 
Forbes  told  himself,  bitterly  enough,  that  had 
he  been  Acting  Governor,  he  would  have  been 
quite  as  competent  to  order  things  for  the 
Colony's  weal  as  the  present  man  who  had 
returned  fresh  and  healthy  from  his  home-leave. 
It  was  the  chance  of  a  lifetime;  and  on  the 
West  Coast,  where  chances  are  few  and  life  is 
short,  a  man  cannot  be  blamed  for  a  little  acid 
ity  of  mind  when  these  fortunate  opportunities 
pass  him  by.  But  at  the  same  time  State  policy 
is  not  a  story  to  be  bawled  abroad  in  a  moment 
of  spleen  to  any  subordinate  official  who  may 
not  understand  its  niceties,  and  the  Colonial 
Secretary,  with  a  sudden  recollection  of  these 
facts,  pulled  up  his  confidences. 

"  I  didn't  suppose  you  would  follow  all  that's 


THE   BAIT  5 

going  on  in  the  Chief's  office  just  now,"  he  said. 
"  Young  men  who  are  seconded  from  home  regi 
ments,  and  come  out  here  to  take  up  commands 
in  the  Hausa  police,  do  not  understand  much 
about  high  politics." 

Dayton-Philipps  laughed. 

"  That's  right,"  he  said ;  "  take  me  down  a 
peg.  I'm  sure  I  don't  mind.  I  never  did  have 
any  hankering  after  the  diplomatic  service.  My 
own  trade's  good  enough  for  me.  But  I  don't 
mind  telling  you  straight  that  I  want  to  rise  in 
that.  I  didn't  come  out  to  the  West  Coast  just 
for  my  health.  Look  here,  I  don't  want  you  to 
talk  out  of  school,  but  if  you  can  give  me  a 
straight  tip,  I'd  be  very  grateful  for  it." 

"  I  couldn't  say  anything  definite,"  said  Forbes, 
warily ;  "  but  you'll  do  yourself  no  harm  if  you 
get  to  know  your  men  thoroughly,  and  hammer 
up  their  efficiency,  and  carry  out  well  any  little 
orders  you  may  get,  and,  in  fact,  keep  up  to  the 
mark  generally.  If  you're  slack,  you'll  just  rank 
in  with  the  ruck ;  if  you're  not,  you  may  see 
your  chance  close  ahead  of  you  one  of  these  fine 
days." 

"  H'm !  I  suppose  that's  active  service  you 
mean  ?  " 

The  Colonial  Secretary  evaded  an  answer. 

"  By  Jove  ! "  he  said  ;  "  it's  grown  almost  cool 
enough  to  turn  in  with  the  hopes  of  getting  a 
bit  of  sleep.  Let's  see :  you  said  you  wouldn't 
have  another  whisky-and-soda,  didn't  you  ?  " 


6  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

"You're  beginning  to  think  the  talk  has  got 
on  dangerous  ground,  eh  ?  All  right,  —  I'll  clear 
out.  I've  heard  my  'rickshaw  boys  shuffling 
about  down  below  there  for  this  last  half-hour, 
and  if  I  keep  them  waiting  much  longer,  they'll 
probably  upset  me  on  the  road  home,  by  way  of 
a  lesson.  Good-night,  old  man." 

Dayton-Philipps  thought  a  good  deal  that 
night  as  the  'rickshaw  boys  ran  with  him  down 
to  the  police  barrack,  whilst  the  quiet  heat 
lightning  blinked  at  him  from  overhead;  but 
still  he  failed  to  see  the  reason  for  His  Excel 
lency  the  Governor's  civility  to  the  obnoxious 
Padgett.  He  was  a  young  officer  newly  come 
out  from  home,  and  he  had  only  been  in  Africa 
long  enough  to  shuck  off  the  notions  he  had 
acquired  about  the  engineering  of  a  West  Coast 
Colony  in  the  Island  of  his  birth  ;  and  so  far 
had  gathered  very  little  knowledge  of  the  real 
article  which  was  used  on  the  spot. 

However,  at  a  dinner-table  before  which  he 
found  himself  a  couple  of  nights  later,  he  got  a 
deeper  insight  into  the  question,  and  heard  Im 
perial  policy  discussed  with  a  freedom  which,  a 
month  ago,  he  would  have  set  down  as  blasphe 
mous.  His  host  was  head  of  a  big  Coast  trading 
concern ;  the  other  diners  were  all  commercial 
men  ;  and,  unlike  the  Colonial  officials,  they  were 
able  to  say  openly  what  they  thought,  with  never 
a  care  as  to  whether  their  sentiments  leaked  over 
into  print.  Especially  were  they  bitter  against 


THE  BAIT  7 

a  certain  section  of  the  English  community  who 
are  very  highly  looked  up  to  by  many  of  their 
neighbours  here  at  home. 

"  I  wish,"  said  Charteris,  "  that  we  could  get 
some  of  those  canting,  whining  fools  out  here  for 
a  bit  to  see  for  themselves  the  mischief  they  are 
doing.  But  no  fear  of  that :  they've  nothing  to 
gain  by  knowing  the  truth,  and  meanwhile  they're 
making  a  living  out  of  their  silly  theories.  What's 
worse,  good  old  mutton-headed  England  believes 
them.  West  Africa  is  a  poisonous  swamp  that 
isn't  worth  sticking  to ;  the  white  man  is  still 
the  palm-oil  ruffian  of  fifty  years  ago ;  the  black 
man  is  a  little  angel,  only  kept  from  being  drowned 
in  gin  by  their  pious  efforts ;  the  sole  reason  the 
country  isn't  chucked  away  to  France,  or  Ger 
many,  or  any  one  else  who  wants  it,  is  because 
it's  such  a  fine  hunting-ground  for  the  blessed 
missionary.  Oh,  it  makes  me  sick  and  ashamed 
to  be  a  Britisher  when  I  see  the  way  those  solemn 
noodles  handicap  the  fellows  out  here  who  must 
know  the  Coast  best,  and  who  would  make  fine 
prosperous  colonies  if  they  weren't  perpetually 
clogged." 

Baines,  the  man  next  him,  tenderly  filled  his 
glass. 

"  Tommy,"  he  said,  "  wet  your  whistle,  and 
don't  waste  your  wind.  It's  no  use  telling  all 
this  stale  history  to  us,  because  we  know  it  al 
ready  ;  and  it's  no  good  going  home  and  shout 
ing  it  out  there,  because  people  would  only  look 


8  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

superior  and  not  believe  you  if  you  did.  More 
over,  there's  a  silver  lining  to  every  cloud,  and 
ours  looks  as  if  it's  just  going  to  show  through." 

"  What  are  you  driving  at  now  ?  " 

"  If  you  don't  know,  I  shan't  say.  But  I  got 
a  hint  out  at  Government  House  to-day,  and  I 
dare  say  other  people  in  this  room  know  a  thing 
or  two  as  well.  For  instance,  I  bet  a  trifle 
Dayton-Philipps  has  put  his  virgin  sword  on 
the  grindstone  already  in  the  anticipation." 

"  Well,  yes,"  said  that  officer ;  "  but  I'm  hanged 
if  I  know  who  it's  for.  Not  the  French,  is  it  ? 
We  aren't  going  to  have  a  European  war,  are  we  ? 
I  thought  things  were  simmering  down." 

"  French  be  blowed  !  "  said  Baines. 

Charteris  winked  from  across  the  table  know 
ingly. 

« What's  wrong  with  cutting  up  the  King  of 
Katti  ?  " 

"  That's  the  chap  that  owns  the  hinterland  to 
this  colony,  isn't  he  ? "  asked  Dayton-Philipps, 
the  new  comer. 

"  Same  savage.  All  our  trade  comes  through 
his  country  to  the  Coast  here,  and  if  we  don't 
collar  it,  the  French  will." 

"  If  the  French  take  it,  they  stick  on  tariffs 
and  choke  you  out,  don't  they  ?  " 

"If  the  French  come  in  at  the  back  there,  we 
may  as  well  put  up  the  shutters  at  once,  like  they 
did  in  the  Gambia.  The  trade  of  this  colony 
would  be  dead  for  good  and  always." 


THE  BAIT  9 

"Then  why  the  plague  don't  we  take  it?" 
asked  Dayton-Philipps,  petulantly.  He  had  come 
out  to  the  Coast  to  see  active  service ;  he  had 
acquired  two  stiff  doses  of  fever  already ;  and  so 
far  he  had  been  employed  on  nothing  more  war 
like  than  barrack  duty  and  routine.  He  was 
getting  very  disgusted  with  the  change.  The 
commercial  men  round  the  table  understood  all 
this  as  well  as  he  did,  but  being  older  Coasters, 
they  understood  also  the  forces  of  distant  igno 
rance  which  cramped  them  in,  and  as  they  had 
cursed  and  explained  these  same  forces  ten  thou 
sand  times  already  amongst  themselves,  they  for 
bore  out  of  sheer  weariness  of  the  subject  to 
speak  of  them  again. 

However,  when  Dayton-Philipps  repeated  his 
question,  Baines  did  vouchsafe  some  sort  of  a 
reply.  « We  don't  take  Katti  City,"  said 
Baines,  "because  we  aren't  let.  We've  depu- 
tationed,  and  memorialised,  and  petitioned,  till 
we're  sick  of  it ;  we  get  called  a  pack  of  gin-sell 
ing  buccaneers  for  our  pains ;  and  that  murder 
ing  old  beast,  the  King  of  Katti,  is  buttered  up 
as  a  high-minded  native  lord.  My  aunt,  I  wish 
they  could  see  his  private  crucifixion-tree !  I 
wish  they  could  even  be  taken  close  enough  to 
smell  it." 

Dayton-Philipps  remembered  that  Baines  was 
the  only  white  man  who  had  ever  been  in  Katti 
City  —  or,  to  be  more  accurate,  the  only  white 
man  who  had  ever  emerged  from  that  capital  — 


10  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

and  hoped  to  hear  more  details  of  that  place. 
"Yes?"  he  said. 

"  Latterly  the  old  cock's  closed  the  roads ;  he's 
put  juju  on  rubber,  ivory,  and  palm  oil ;  which 
means  all  our  trade's  stopped  ;  and  when  we  post 
him  a  letter  to  expostulate,  he  sacrifices  the 
messenger  on  somebody's  grave.  Thanks  to  our 
clogs  at  home,  we've  got  no  prestige  here,  and  he 
doesn't  funk  us  in  the  very  least,  and  he's  show 
ing  his  bally  independence  and  highmindedness 
and  lordliness  just  now  by  depopulating  the 
country  right  and  left.  The  only  way  to  put 
things  straight  is  to  send  up  a  big  expedition ; 
but  the  red  tape  guided  by  the  black  coat  at 
home  won't  hear  of  that.  After  badgering  at 
them  for  the  Lord  knows  how  long,  the  Governor 
got  permission  to  send  (I'll  trouble  you)  an  un 
armed  expedition  to  ask  would  the  King  kindly 
say  he  was  sorry,  and  be  a  good  boy  for  the  fu 
ture.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  such  fatheadedness?" 
"  I  never  heard  of  an  expedition  going." 
"  Not  likely.  His  Excellency  here  may  be  a 
bit  of  an  old  woman  about  some  things,  but  he 
does  know  something  about  the  ways  of  the  up- 
country  nigger,  and  the  King  of  Katti  in  particu 
lar.  I  can  tell  you  there  was  a  fine  boil-up  in 
Government  House  here  over  the  suggestion.  He 
wrote  home  that  he  took  upon  himself  to  counter 
mand  the  order.  He  said  he  wasn't  going  to  send 
a  batch  of  his  young  men  to  be  deliberately 
murdered  in  the  Katti  fetish  grove  as  a  sop  to 


THE  BAIT  11 

any  one,  not  even  to  get  an  excuse  for  starting  a 
very  desirable  war  of  annexation." 

"  Well,"  said  Dayton-Philipps,  "  I  can't  say, 
from  what  I've  heard  of  the  gentleman,  that  I 
should  care  to  go  and  pay  a  polite  call  on  the 
King  of  Katti  with  nothing  but  a  walking-stick 
and  a  card-case  myself."  And  there  for  the 
time  being  the  topic  dropped. 

But  Dayton-Philipps,  not  being  altogether  a 
fool,  was  beginning  to  have  inklings  of  what  was 
fluttering  the  Colony  just  then,  and  next  evening 
at  the  Governor's  dinner-table  he  saw  the  matter 
even  more  clearly.  The  function  was  a  solemn 
one.  Officially  it  was  described  as  the  leave-tak 
ing  of  the  Rev.  Alfred  Padgett,  but  the  esoteric 
significance  of  the  gathering  was  patent  to  every 
body.  With  one  exception,  all  the  diners,  from 
the  Governor  downwards,  were  in  a  queer  twitter 
of  excitement.  The  only  really  calm  man  there 
was  Padgett  himself,  and  as  it  was  plain  that 
everybody  present  listened  to  even  the  least  of 
his  words  with  open  fascination,  he  took  advan 
tage  of  his  opportunity. 

He  did  not  mince  matters  in  the  very  least; 
he  did  not  try  and  ingratiate  himself  with  any 
body  ;  but  he  took  each  diner  in  turn,  from  Forbes, 
the  Colonial  Secretary,  to  Charteris  and  Baines, 
mere  traders  and  members  of  Council,  and  in 
sulted  each  over  his  particular  share  of  the 
Colony's  work,  with  deliberation  and  system. 
He  was  a  man  with  a  good  clear  voice,  and  none 


12  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

of  his  words  miscarried ;  and  when  he  selected  a 
victim,  all  the  other  men  at  the  table  listened 
with  respectful  attention.  The  Colony,  for  the 
future,  it  seemed,  was  to  be  run  on  entirely  differ 
ent  lines  :  trade  and  the  glorification  of  the  Em 
pire  were  to  be  things  of  the  past ;  and  in  the 
meantime  he  was  going  up  to  call  in  person  on 
the  King  of  Katti  to  present  him  with  a  new 
creed  and,  apparently,  a  bale  of  second-hand 
trousers. 

The  men  round  the  table,  old  Coasters  all  of 
them,  with  the  one  exception  of  Philipps, 
solemnly  and  emphatically  warned  him  of  the 
dangers  which  lay  beyond  the  narrow  fringe  of 
the  Colony ;  and,  as  offensively  as  might  be,  he 
rejected  all  their  advice.  Nobody  resented  the 
contradiction  ;  nobody  showed  up  the  silliness  of 
his  shallow,  ignorant,  sledge-hammer  arguments. 
That  was  a  great  night  for  the  Rev.  Alfred  Pad 
gett,  and  he  mopped  at  his  wet  face  and  made 
the  most  of  it.  When  the  hour  came  to  go  — 
and  he  sat  consumedly  long  —  they  were  all  still 
waiting  and  watching,  and  each  man  came  for 
ward  in  his  turn  and  shook  hands  with  him,  in  a 
manner  that  made  the  parting  scene  almost  like 
a  religious  rite. 

But  at  last  he  went  away  out  of  the  hot  glare 
of  the  room  into  the  warm  night  outside,  and  the 
men  got  into  long  chairs  and  took  deep  breaths 
as  if  a  big  restraint  was  taken  from  them. 

For  long  enough  there  was  silence.     Each  had 


THE  BAIT  13 

his  own  thoughts  to  add  up  and  value,  and  the 
lazy  punkah  eddied  the  tobacco  smoke  overhead. 

Then  Baines  said :  "  By  God,  he  is  brave 
enough.  When  I  told  him  what  Katti  City  was 
really  like,  he  never  turned  a  hair.  I  watched 
the  beggar." 

"  Pah  !  Brave  ?  "  said  Forbes.  "  It  was  only 
mutton-headed  ignorance.  Simply,  he  didn't 
believe  you." 

"  Think  so  ?  "  said  Baines.  "  Perhaps  you're 
right.  He  certainly  doesn't  take  any  of  us  much 
at  our  own  valuation  here.  Well,  he'll  find  out 
many  things  for  himself  in  due  time,  and  after 
that  the  wires  '11  begin  to  work,  and  the  nice 
pink  English  Tommies  will  begin  to  come,  and 

the  West  African  squadron Good  Lord  ! 

that  gives  me  jumps." 

His  Excellency  the  Governor  had  accidentally 
tipped  over  a  tall  soda-water  tumbler,  which  fell 
with  a  crash  on  to  the  floor.  The  men  in  the 
room,  with  their  nerves  all  on  springs,  started  as 
if  a  shell  had  burst  under  the  table,  and  by  the 
time  they  had  settled  down  again,  frowning  and 
fanning,  the  Governor  had  finished  apologising 
for  his  clumsiness,  and  had  started  a  talk  on 
the  new  pier  which  it  was  proposed  to  erect  to 
supersede  the  dangerous  surf-boats.  His  Excel 
lency  might  not  be  a  brainy  man,  but  even  his 
enemies  could  not  help  admitting  his  infinite  tact- 
fulness.  He  did  all  his  most  delicate  business 
round  a  dinner-table,  and  yet  he  was  never  known 


14  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

to  let  a  dinner  conversation  grow  dangerous. 
There  have  not  been  many  public  servants  of 
whom  this  could  be  written  on  their  official 
tombstones. 

If  Padgett  expected  a  final  ovation  the  next 
morning  before  he  set  off  into  the  bush,  he  was 
disappointed.  He  started  soon  after  daybreak. 
It  is  in  the  cool  of  daybreak  that  the  West  Afri 
can  white  man  begins  his  work.  But  on  this 
occasion  every  one  seemed  most  unnaturally  to 
have  overslept  himself. 

Mr.  Padgett  stepped  out  in  full  panoply  of 
pith  helmet,  white  clothes,  and  umbrella,  with  a 
fine  caravan  of  carriers  before  and  behind ;  but 
no  one  of  a  higher  species  than  laughing,  chatter 
ing  natives  filled  the  street  between  the  factories 
and  the  grass-roofed  dwelling-houses.  Not  a 
single  member  of  the  white  population  had  come 
to  see  him  off,  which,  taking  into  consideration 
the  occasion  and  the  place,  was  an  obvious  per 
sonal  slight.  But  Mr.  Padgett  did  not  mind  that. 
On  the  contrary,  he  rather  preferred  it.  He  was 
one  of  those  men  who  make  a  luxury  of  the 
minor  martyrdoms. 

The  ease  with  which  he  collected  his  caravan 
of  carriers,  seemed  to  him  a  proof  that  the  solemn 
warnings  which  the  whites  of  the  Colony  had 
given  him  about  the  dangers  of  the  Katti  country 
were  merely  a  pack  of  lies,  intended  to  keep  him 
from  finding  out  how  matters  really  lay.  It  did 
not  occur  to  him  that  when  the  white  man  leads, 


THE  BAIT  15 

the  West  Coast  native,  being  a  childlike  and  some 
what  brainless  creature,  will  always  follow  and 
carry  —  for  pay.  And  so,  cheered  by  his  bigoted 
ignorance,  he  strutted  complacently  enough 
through  the  trim  streets  of  the  Coast  town 
(which  made  up  his  sole  personal  acquaintance 
with  Africa)  and  disappeared  down  a  narrow 
eighteen-inch  road  which  corkscrewed  its  way 
into  the  bush  beyond. 

There  are  no  electric  telegraphs  up-country  in 
Africa,  but  in  some  mysterious  manner  news 
floats  about  amongst  the  natives  of  what  is  going 
on,  and  its  transmission  is  astonishingly  rapid. 
Comment  on  the  progress  of  Padgett's  expedition 
drifted  into  the  factories  from  almost  every  one 
of  its  halting-places,  and  the  white  men  of  the 
Colony's  capital  conned  over  the  scraps  they 
heard  with  tingling  nerves.  In  the  temperate 
climate  of  England  it  is  hard  work  to  sit  entirely 
still  whilst  one  is  waiting  for  an  almost  certain 
catastrophe,  but  in  the  unhealthy  stew  of  a  West 
Coast  town,  where  one's  health  is  chronically  in 
rags,  the  suspense  of  such  a  vigil  can  very  well 
approach  nearly  to  the  unendurable.  But  the 
machinery  of  Government  and  business  cannot 
stop  because  its  drivers  are  oppressed  by  megrims 
such  as  these,  and  the  white  men  in  the  white 
clothes,  with  their  faces  yellowed  by  liver  and 
violent  suns,  plied  on  doggedly  at  their  tasks  as 
heretofore.  Latins,  or  men  of  the  more  emotional 
nations,  would  have  halted  listlessly  during  that 


16  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

wait ;  and  as  a  consequence  they  and  their  kind 
do  not  now  make  empires.  The  Anglo-Saxon  is 
a  different  type  of  animal.  He  may  have  less 
emotions,  but  nothing  short  of  his  own  funeral 
makes  him  neglect  his  appointed  work  for  very 
long  together. 

As  a  visible  result,  they  were  rather  apt  during 
this  time  of  suspense  to  brace  up  their  dinner 
champagne  with  angostura  bitters,  and  to  get 
hold  of  a  few  more  than  the  customary  cocktails 
between  whiles;  but  they  kept  themselves  well 
in  hand,  and,  in  fact,  rather  took  on  a  guarded- 
ness  of  speech  that  was  foreign  to  them.  There 
was  a  hysterical  native  press  in  the  Colony's 
capital,  which  at  times  got  quoted  in  the  London 
papers ;  and  it  would  not  do  to  let  the  idea  leak 
out  into  print  that  they  foresaw  the  good  the 
forthcoming  catastrophe  would  do,  before  that 
catastrophe  took  place. 

At  last,  however,  the  thundercloud  broke,  and 
the  tired  white  men  breathed  deep  and  prepared 
for  the  deluge.  The  King  of  Katti  was  no  nig 
gling  savage.  Reports  came  down  from  his  gory 
capital  thick  and  fast.  He  had  sent  an  armed 
force  to  meet  the  invader,  whose  carriers  promptly 
fled  —  and  small  blame  to  them !  The  wretched 
Padgett  first  tried  to  run,  and  then,  as  explana 
tions  were  beyond  him,  pluckily  started  to  fight. 
Accounts  of  the  skirmish  varied,  as  native  ac 
counts  will :  some  tales  credited  him  with  terrific 
slaughter ;  whilst  others  held  that  he  had  merely 


THE  BAIT  17 

laid  about  him  with  a  walking-cane;  but  all 
agreed  upon  his  capture  and  subsequent  execution. 
Indeed  the  King  of  Katti,  to  remove  all  doubt, 
sent  down  a  week  later  a  shrivelled  hand  and 
arm,  purporting  to  be  Padgett's,  as  a  sign  of  his 
contempt  for  the  white  man's  power,  and  as  a 
hint  to  deter  future  callers. 

But  by  this  time  the  home  cable  had  got  the 
news  well  in  hand,  and  the  sweating  operators 
were  working  double  shifts,  whilst  men  in  twenty 
offices  over  half  the  world  arranged  for  the  bring 
ing  together  and  the  furnishing  of  an  army. 
And  a  little  later  the  English  papers  flashed  out 
one  morning,  black  with  indignation  and  head 
lines,  and  asked  how  long  a  feeble  English  Gov 
ernment  was  going  to  permit  missionaries  of  the 
sacred  English  race  to  be  foully  murdered  by 
African  barbarians.  There  was  no  talk  now  of 
the  high-minded  native  lord ;  there  was  no  talk 
of  offending  French  or  German  susceptibilities. 
The  good  people  at  home  had  not  been  stewing 
over  the  catastrophe  for  a  month  before  it  hap 
pened,  and  the  reasons  for  it  all  they  would  not 
have  understood  even  if  these  had  been  explained 
to  them.  The  news  to  London  and  England  was 
as  fresh  as  it  was  horrible,  and  the  clamour  for 
vengeance  dinned  from  every  side.  From  the 
slaying  of  this  one  white  missionary,  Britain  in 
stantly  knew  that  the  hinterland  to  this  Colony 
was  not  fit  to  govern  itself,  and  it  shouted  forth 
the  order  to  annex  without  further  thought 


18  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

The  project  —  as  Coasters  wearily  knew  —  was 
not  a  novel  one,  but  hitherto  it  had  been  kept  in 
the  background  by  a  sturdy  opposition.  Now, 
however,  the  opposition  vanished.  Even  wooden- 
headed  Little  Eri glanders  and  their  adherents 
know  when  to  be  silent  sometimes. 

The  British  public  says  in  its  commanding 
way,  "  Do  this ! "  and  is  accustomed  to  see  it 
done.  It  chooses  its  servants  well,  and  they  are 
always  smart  to  carry  out  the  details.  Forbes, 
Dayton-Philipps,  His  Excellency  the  Governor, 
and  the  other  men  on  the  spot,  with  the  eye  of 
prophecy  had  secured  a  month's  start,  and  natu 
rally  had  got  a  wealth  of  preparations  mapped 
out  up  the  sleeve.  When  these  were  reeled 
forth  in  rhythmical  precision,  they  spoke  vol 
umes  (to  the  public)  of  the  excellence  of  the 
Colony's  organisation ;  and  the  hurrying  war- 
correspondent,  catching  this  key-note  before  he 
sailed,  saw  the  perfection  of  the  local  machinery 
from  the  moment  a  surf-boat  ejected  him  on  the 
beach,  and  patted  the  white  men  of  the  place 
on  the  back  in  lavish  dispatches.  Clearly  this 
Colony  had  been  too  long  neglected.  Clearly  the 
men  now  in  charge  were  just  the  fellows  to 
bring  it  with  a  rush  to  the  front. 

At  the  London  War  Office,  officers  were  tum 
bling  over  one  another  in  their  eagerness  to 
volunteer;  at  Malta,  Cape  Town,  Woolwich, 
Gibraltar,  pieces  of  the  war  machine  were  get 
ting  oiled  and  started ;  a  wire  to  Suez  sent  a 


THE  BAIT  19 

home-coming  Indian  regiment  to  stew  some  more 
in  the  tropics  before  it  could  swill  its  English 
beer ;  and  in  Free  Town  harbour,  Sierra  Leone, 
Her  Majesty's  penny  steamer  Alecto  took  on  a 
hurried  lick  of  paint  as  she  prepared  for  her 
four-hundredth  campaign.  Nobody  knew  how 
strong  were  the  forces  of  the  King  of  Katti,  and 
nobody,  except  a  few  responsible  heads,  very 
vastly  cared.  Dayton-Philipps  prayed  piously 
that  they  wouldn't  "  swamp  the  show  with 
regiments." 

"  The  old  Lord  High  Executioner  up  at  Katti," 
said  he  to  Forbes,  "has  got  some  good  fighting 
soldiers  with  excellent  guns,  so  my  fellows  say, 
and  it  will  be  a  beastly  shame  if  they  are  scared 
into  running  away  before  the  fun  begins." 

"  Well,  we  want  the  man  beaten  once  and  for 
always,"  said  the  Colonial  Secretary,  who  looked 
more  to  effect  than  method.  "  We've  more  luck 
than  I  hoped  for :  the  Colony  isn't  having  to  pay 
for  the  troops ;  we've  been  such  good  boys  that 
we're  having  'em  stood  for  a  treat ;  and  they 
can  send  the  whole  bally  army  for  anything  I 
care." 

"  And  make  a  silly  picnic  of  it  ?  I  didn't 
come  out  here  for  picnics  ;  I  came  for  promotion  ; 
and  if  it's  all  Tommies  and  no  fighting,  that 
means  I've  to  stay  where  I  am.  Look  here,  you 
let  me  waltz  in  with  the  Hausas  —  call  it  a  re 
connaissance  in  force,  if  you  like  —  and  I'll  clean 
out  Katti's  town  for  you  before  the  other  fellows 


20  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

arrive.  I  say,  I  could  really.  Do  try  and  work 
it  with  the  Chief,  there's  a  good  fellow." 

"Rot!"  said  Forbes.  "This  war  isn't  going 
to  be  run  for  your  particular  benefit,  my  young 
friend  —  or  mine,  for  that  matter.  It's  for  the 
Colony.  It  '11  bring  the  Colony  into  notice,  and 
let  everybody  know  what  a  fine  place  it  is,  and 
how  well  it's  run  —  by  us,  of  course  —  and  how 
much  more  valuable  it's  got  by  having  the  new 
territory  added,  and,  in  fact,  what  a  desirable 
Colony  it  is  for  younger  sons  and  capitalists  in 
every  way." 

"  Oh,  if  you  look  upon  the  war  as  a  beastly 
advertisement  scheme ! " 

"  I  do.  This  is  the  way  it  runs  :  <  To  let,  New 
portion  of  the  British  Empire,  offering  a  highly 
desirable  dumping-ground  for  single  young  men 
desirous  of  making  a  pile.  Apply  early  for  allot 
ments.'  And  when  the  guns  begin  to  shoot, 
everybody  at  home  will  turn  round  and  see  that 
advertisement  written  big  in  the  newspapers  and 
on  the  hoardings.  The  more  guns  there  are,  and 
the  more  they  shoot,  the  more  those  excellent 
people  will  turn  round  to  look,  and  become  aware 
of  the  Colony's  existence." 

"  How  mad  that  poor  beggar  Padgett  would 
be,"  said  Philipps,  "  if  he  could  only  know  what 
his  blundering  expedition  had  led  up  to  !  If  he 
had  been  a  German,  he  could  not  have  hated  any 
more  the  idea  that  this  Colony  should  expand  or 
any  way  go  forward." 


THE   BAIT  21 

The  Colonial  Secretary  turned  on  him  with 
sudden  asperity. 

"  Now  look  here,"  he  said,  "  mind  how  you  talk 
about  Padgett.  There  are  a  lot  of  reporters  on 
the  beach  here  now,  and  if  they  get  to  know  too 
much,  the  fat  '11  be  in  the  fire  with  a  vengeance. 
Reporters  are  all  very  well  in  their  way ;  they're 
fellows  we've  wanted  out  here  badly  for  long 
enough.  But  it  is  only  intended  they  should 
know  the  proper  things.  All  the  white  men  in 
this  Colony  are  safe  enough  as  far  as  intention 
goes,  because  they  know,  whoever  they  are,  that 
if  the  Colony  pushes  ahead,  they  move  on  also. 
But  the  man  that  scares  me  is  your  loose-lipped 
man." 

Dayton-Philipps  flushed. 

"  I  am  not  altogether  a  dam'  fool,"  he  said. 
"  The  whole  business  mystified  me  at  first,  I'll 
own.  You  were  all  so  infernally  close  about  it. 
But  I  began  to  see  that  the  Chief  wouldn't  have  a 
bounder  like  that  to  come  and  insult  him  day  after 
day  at  Government  House  without  a  considerable 
reason,  and  after  I  sat  down  to  think  the  matter 
out,  I  wasn't  very  long  in  seeing  how  Padgett 
would  be  of  use.  You  see,  I'm  a  bit  of  a  fisher 
man  myself,  and  when  you  can't  rise  'em  with  a 
fly,  live  bait's  usually  the  best  thing,  if  you're 
fishing  for  the  pot.  But  you  needn't  necessarily 
think  I  was  the  kind  of  fathead  to  go  and  bawl 
out  the  whole  yarn  to  one  of  those  correspondent 
fellows  when  he  came  into  barracks  for  a  cocktail. 


22  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

I'm  not  long  enough  out  from  home  myself  to 
forget  how  they  look  at  things  there." 

"  All  right,"  said  Forbes ;  "  I  didn't  mean  to 
draw  you  like  that,  only  I  thought  a  hint  might 
be  useful.  Well,  I  must  go  down  to  the  office 
again.  My  faith,  though,  this  kind  of  tea-party 
does  mean  a  mountain  of  work  for  the  men  on 
the  spot.  I  wish  I  could  think  there  was  a  chance 
of  it  bringing  in  something  in  the  way  of  reward 
besides." 

Now,  it  is  no  place  here  to  reprint  what  the 
war-correspondents  with  the  Expeditionary  Force 
wrote  of  with  such  breadth  of  colour  and  detail. 
The  converging  troops,  with  their  paraphernalia 
of  guns,  rockets,  commissariat,  ambulance,  and  all 
the  rest,  steamed  out  to  the  Colony  from  a  dozen 
points,  in  war-ship  and  hired  transport.  Every 
dwelling  in  the  town  was  a  barrack,  and  Govern 
ment  House  was  an  officers'  free  restaurant.  The 
men  on  the  spot  who  knew  the  country,  suddenly 
changed  from  exiles  into  residents,  and  Dayton- 
Philipps,  with  little  thrills  of  glee,  found  himself 
giving  advice  to  an  admiral,  three  colonels,  and  a 
general,  who  had  already  won  high  place  in  the 
traffic  of  war. 

"  Sharp  fellow,  that  young  what's-his-name  — 
Philipps,"  said  the  big  men  amongst  themselves. 
"  Must  try  and  shove  him  into  something  a  bit 
better  when  this  affair's  through.  He  hasn't  done 
much,  of  course,  but  he  hasn't  muddled  everything, 
like  these  black  regiment  fellows  generally  do." 


THE  BAIT  23 

And  in  due  time  the  nice  pink  English  Tommies 
(which  Baines  had  sighed  for)  were  dumped  on 
the  noisy  beach  by  the  surf-boats,  and  the  march 
up  country,  with  its  attendant  miseries,  and  road- 
making,  and  fever,  was  carried  out  according  to 
honoured  precedent  and  rule.  His  Excellency  the 
Governor  accompanied  the  force,  not  necessarily 
to  be  shot  at,  but  merely  as  a  guarantee  of  good 
faith ;  and  Dayton-Philipps  and  his  Hausas  headed 
the  advance,  and  ambushed  the  ambushing  Katti 
men  very  cannily  amongst  the  by-paths  of  the 
bush.  The  correspondents  who  accompanied  the 
column  painted  the  horrors  of  Katti  City  in  fresh 
bright  red,  as  though  they  were  a  thing  which  had 
never  been  heard  of  before,  and  quite  ignored  the 
fact  that  the  Colonials  had  been  vainly  crying 
against  them  for  years. 

One  illustrator,  more  ingenious  than  his  fellows, 
sent  home  a  sombre  photograph  of  "  Rev.  Padgett's 
grave."  But,  truth  to  tell,  Padgett  had  rather 
dropped  out  of  history  by  this  time.  He  was 
dead ;  he  had  been  useful ;  and  he  was  forgotten. 
What  more  could  the  man  expect  ?  In  life  he  had 
not  endeared  himself  to  the  Colonials. 

There  was  no  hitch  anywhere.  Great  Britain 
makes  a  speciality  of  these  little  wars,  and  in 
them  trains  the  sections  of  her  fighting  machinery 
perfectly,  as  some  one  will  find  out  expensively 
when  the  threatened  big  war  arrives.  The  King 
of  Katti  was  duly  caught,  tried,  and  deported 
to  a  distant  shore  ;  his  ecclesiastical  arrangements 


^4  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

were  upset  for  good,  and  human  sacrifices  finally 
abolished ;  and  in  his  place  was  set  up  one  Day  ton- 
Philipps,  an  ordinary  British  subaltern,  as  Resi 
dent,  with  a  guard  of  Hausas,  to  uphold  his 
dignity.  The  country,  wearied  of  its  old  rulers, 
settled  down  at  once,  and  the  Hausas  (who,  being 
natives,  are  good  judges  of  such  a  matter)  showed 
their  appreciation  of  the  quietude  by  sending  for 
their  wives  and  families  to  come  and  take  up 
immediate  residence  in  Katti  City. 

Charteris  and  Baines  bought  over  the  Govern 
ment  loot  of  carved  ivory  and  gold  dust  at  such 
a  nice  profit  to  themselves  that  they  were  able  a 
year  later  to  "  chuck  the  Coast  for  good  "  and 
live  decently  at  home  on  ample  incomes ;  and 
His  Excellency  the  Governor  received  the  reward 
of  his  tact  and  luck  in  the  shape  of  the  coveted 
K.C.M.G.,  and  promotion  to  another  colony 
where  the  death-rate  for  Europeans  did  not 
average  more  than  twenty-seven  per  thousand, 
which  of  course  was  by  comparison  quite  a 
health  resort.  Even  Forbes  got  the  reward 
which  he  so  persistently  refused  to  expect,  and 
is  now  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  in  his  late 
Excellency's  place.  And  at  home  people  studied 
their  maps  and  remarked  complacently  that  ter 
ritory  eager  for  trade  had  been  added  to  the 
British  Empire,  in  acreage  equal  to  the  British 
Islands,  with  Belgium  and  Holland  thrown  in. 

But  Padgett  was  the  discontented  man,  and 
in  my  humble  judgment  rightly  so.  He  had 


THE  BAIT     v  25 

acted  on  his  own  pig-headed  initiative  certainly  ; 
but  all  the  same  he  had  been  made  use  of  —  as 
a  Bait  —  neither  more  nor  less.  It  appeared  that 
he  had  not  been  killed  at  all,  and  the  shrivelled 
hand  which  had  been  sent  down  as  a  mark  of 
'bona  fides  had  been  borrowed  from  some  unknown 
stranger.  Pleasantries  of  this  sort  are  quite  ad 
mitted  in  the  diplomacy  of  the  African  interior. 
Instead,  he  had  been  haled  off  up  country  in  the 
custody  of  a  couple  of  local  ecclesiastics,  who  (as 
probably  he  would  have  done  himself)  treated 
their  prisoner  with  some  intolerance,  and  did 
not  liberate  him  till  long  after  the  trouble  was 
over,  and  he  had  ceased  to  have  value  as  a 
hostage. 

He  got  down  to  the  Coast  in  rags,  but  quite 
unchastened  in  spirit.  Men  certainly  knew  him, 
but  after  the  first  formal  congratulations  on  his 
escape,  their  recognitions  were  disgustingly  dry 
and  inhospitable.  One  would  have  thought 
that  their  sense  of  generosity  would  have  been 
touched ;  they  all  of  them  certainly  had  gained 
much  through  Mr.  Padgett's  unconscious  aid. 
But  I  am  only  writing  history  here,  and  the  fact 
remains  that  they  gave  him  the  cold  shoulder. 
The  man's  usefulness  was  gone ;  they  saw  in 
him  only  a  noisy,  objectionable  bounder. 

Mr.  Padgett  went  home  as  an  "assisted  pas 
senger  "  by  an  early  steamer,  vowing  vengeance 
on  Colonial  officials,  the  Coast,  and  every  piece 
of  work  to  which  a  white  man  can  put  his  hand 


26  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

in  West  Africa.  He  would  have  a  general  in 
quiry  ;  he  would  frame  a  list  of  abuses ;  he 
would  have  questions  in  Parliament ;  he  would 
procure  a  Royal  Commission.  He  might  have 
done  it,  too,  had  the  journalistic  season  been 
propitious,  being  a  man  of  astonishing  energy 
against  his  dislikes.  But  there  was  another  ex 
citement  on  hand,  and  the  Colony  was  saved 
from  worry.  One  small  evening  paper,  after 
much  clamouring  at  editorial  doors,  did  publish 
an  expurgated  "  Statement  by  Rev.  Paget,"  but 
there  the  matter  rested.  The  statement  was  not 
copied  by  any  of  the  other  journals.  The  other 
excitement  on  hand  beat  it  in  interest. 

There  is  luck  in  these  minor  matters  of  can- 
tankering,  just  as  there  is  in  the  larger  affairs  of 
empire-making.  Suitable  baits  do  not  come  to 
hand  every  day  of  the  week. 


II 

RUN  DOWN 

"  HULLO  !  there's  Calvert,  of  all  people ! "  I 
heard  a  brisk  voice  say  behind  me.  "  Now,  he's 
the  very  man.  I'll  introduce  you  to  him  this 
minute,  and  then  we'll  go  below  and  see  your 
room,  and  backsheesh  the  steward  into  civility." 

I  turned  my  head  and  saw  Vanrennan  elbow 
ing  his  way  amongst  the  crowd  which  swarmed 
on  the  steamer's  bridge-deck  between  the  gang 
way  and  the  head  of  the  first-class  companion. 
He  had  a  couple  of  dressing-bags  in  his  fists,  a 
bundle  of  rugs  under  his  arm,  and  a  pair  of 
ladies  in  his  train.  To  these  last  he  introduced 
me :  — 

"  Mrs.  Codrington,  and  my  sister  Mabel. 
They're  going  across  to  New  York  to  stay  with 
some  friends,  and  then,  when  the  warm  weather 
comes,  they're  off  with  a  party  to  see  the  Yo- 
semite  Valley.  They'll  be  met  on  the  wharf  at 
the  other  side,  but  up  to  there  they'll  be  two 
lone,  lorn  females,  and  I  want  you  to  give  them 
the  benefit  of  your  countenance,  and  do  the 
genial  watch-dog  business.  By  the  -way,  you're 
taking  matters  pretty  coolly  :  you  look  either  as 

27 


28  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

if  you  had  been  settled  here  for  a  week,  or  else 
had  no  connection  with  the  steamer  whatever. 
I  suppose  you  are  crossing  by  her  ? " 

I  laughed.  "  Oh,  yes,"  I  said ;  "  I  came  on 
board  her  sixteen  minutes  ago ;  saw  the  Purser, 
and  found  I  knew  him ;  made  him  give  me  the 
best  room  in  the  ship  instead  of  the  one  I'd  got ; 
carted  my  things  in  there  one-time,  and  locked 
the  door ;  and  then  cleared  out  here,  and  didn't 
worry  any  more." 

"  You're  an  old,  bold  hand,"  said  Vanrennan, 
"  and  many  years  of  wandering  have  made  you 
perfect  in  the  art  of  looking  after  yourself.  What 
do  you  think  of  the  boat  ?  " 

"  Oh,  she's  a  fine  steamer,  and  she'll  do  a  quick 
passage.  Moreover,  because  she  is  a  foreigner, 
they'll  feed  us  extremely  well,  which  is  a  great 
thing  for  this  time  of  year." 

"  Then  do  you  think  we  shall  have  a  very  bad 
crossing  ?  "  Mrs.  Codrington  asked  anxiously. 

"  We  may  have  a  breeze,  or  we  mayn't ;  the 
Western  Ocean  is  always  delightfully  uncertain 
about  that.  But  I  was  thinking  about  the  cold. 
There'll  be  precious  little  going  out  on  deck ; 
meals  will  be  the  most  interesting  item  of  the 
day ;  and  therefore  a  good  table  is  a  distinct 
pleasure  to  look  forward  to." 

"  Do  you  think  there  is  any  danger  ? "  said 
Mrs.  Codrington. 

I  smiled.  "  Remarkably  little.  Considerably 
less,  for  instance,  than  you  would  be  exposed  to 


RUN   DOWN  29 

if  you  travelled  by  train  for  a  week  backwards 
and  forwards  between  London  and  Glasgow.  In 
fact,  if  you  care  to  give  me  the  sum  of  one  penny 
apiece,  I'll  insure  you  each  for  .£1000  against 
fatal  accident  all  the  way  across,  like  the  weekly 
papers  do  ashore.  Come,  now,  will  you  let  me 
do  that  stroke  of  business  ?  " 

"  Save  your  coppers,"  said  Vanrennan,  laugh 
ing.  "  Calvert  is  too  grasping.  Come  along  down 
below  and  get  settled  in  your  quarters,  and  then 
bid  me  an  affectionate  good-bye.  I  shall  have  to 
clear  if  I  don't  want  to  be  taken  on.  Ta-ta, 
Calvert,  old  chap.  So  awfully  good  of  you  to 
take  these  damsels  under  your  charge.  Hope 
you'll  all  have  a  good  time  on  the  other  side,  and 
not  get  frozen  on  the  road.  Good-bye." 

We  hove  up  at  dusk  that  afternoon,  and 
because  the  Channel  outside  was  white  with  an 
ugly,  choppy  sea,  there  were  fiddles  on  the  table 
at  dinner  and  extraordinarily  few  diners.  I  sent 
down  dry  champagne  and  biscuits  to  Mrs.  Cod- 
rington's  room,  and  then,  seating  myself  next  to 
the  Purser,  made  a  gorgeous  meal. 

"We  do  ourselves  well  here  in  the  grub  line, 
don't  we  ?  "  said  the  Purser.  "  Better  than  the 
English  boats.  We're  dragging  all  the  passenger 
trade  away  from  them  now.  Come  along  down 
to  my  room  for  your  coffee,  and  we'll  have  a  quiet 
smoke  before  I  get  to  work  squaring  up  my 
papers.  Lord !  I  wouldn't  care  to  be  the  Old 
Man  to-night !  He'll  be  perched  there  freezing 


30  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

on  the  upper  bridge  till  we're  bang  clear  of  the 
Channel,  and  very  likely  for  the  next  twenty-four 
hours  after  that  if  the  weather's  at  all  thick. 
He's  got  just  over  a  thousand  human  lives  on 
this  ship,  and  I  guess  they  give  him  all  the 
responsibility  he's  any  use  for.  Steward,  bring 
me  down  a  bottle  of  liqueur  cognac  to  my  room. 
Now,  Mr.  Calvert,  if  you're  ready." 

The  Purser  and  I  talked  Western  Ocean  shop 
during  the  burning  of  two  Cuban  cigars,  and  then 
he  turned  to  at  work,  and  I  slipped  off  to  the 
smoke-room  and  read  the  illustrated  papers.  It 
was  eleven  o'clock  before  the  smoke-room  steward 
hinted  that  the  hour  of  closing  had  come. 

I  went  out  into  the  night,  a  black  misty  night 
full  of  rain  and  spindrift  driving  down  from  the 
nor'-nor'-west.  I  cocked  my  eye  and  saw  the 
skipper  and  two  mates  patrolling  the  upper 
bridge ;  on  the  break  of  the  deck  ahead  of  me 
were  three  men  in  glistening  oilskins ;  in  the 
crow's-nest  forward  were  two  others ;  and  I 
shivered  luxuriously,  and  thanked  the  fates  that 
I  was  a  mere  passenger  who  could  travel  in  abso 
lute  safety  and  have  no  watch  to  keep.  And 
then  I  went  below,  made  fast  my  portmanteaux, 
and  turned  in.  Sleep  humoured  me  at  once. 

I  woke  to  the  tune  of  colliding  ships  and  the 
full  orchestra  of  Death. 

To  say  that  my  senses  came  to  me  without 
flurry  and  at  once  would  be  too  great  a  claim. 
By  some  violent  shock  from  beneath  I  was 


RUN  DOWN  31 

banged  up  against  the  iron  roof  of  the  cabin.  I 
pitched  back  on  the  floor,  and  for  a  minute  or  so 
lay  there  stunned. 

Something  serious  was  going  on.  I  became 
dully  conscious  of  this,  and  with  an  effort  roused 
myself  and  stared  curiously  at  the  curtain-rod  of 
the  bunk,  which  lay  doubled  up  and  twisted 
between  my  hands.  Then  it  began  to  be  borne 
in  upon  me  that  the  ship  was  awake  with  scream 
ing  and  the  trampling  of  frightened  feet,  and 
then  the  interpretation  of  these  things  came  to 
me  in  a  flash.  We  were  in  collision. 

A  man  snatched  open  my  door,  stammered 
out,  "  We're  going  down :  oh !  what  shall  I 
do  ? "  and  ran  away  shouting.  The  ship  was 
full  of  noise  and  darkness  and  hammering.  The 
propeller  had  stopped  ;  no  light  came  when  I 
turned  the  electric  switch ;  and  we  had  so  heavy 
a  list  to  starboard  (my  side)  that  already  the 
ports  were  covered  most  of  the  time.  It  was 
precisely  clear  that  the  steamer  was  in  a  bad 
way,  and  one's  first  and  most  natural  instinct 
was  to  bolt  for  the  upper  decks. 

I'm  ashamed  to  say  that  I  had  already  rushed 
outside  the  door  with  this  idea  before  I  got  my 
wits  in  hand  again.  But  then  I  pulled  myself 
up,  and  went  back  and  dragged  on  some  heavy 
serge  clothes  over  my  pyjamas,  and  added  boots 
and  a  whisky-flask ;  after  which  I  pounded  off 
along  the  alley-ways  to  the  room  which  Mrs. 
Codrington  shared  with  the  Vanrennan  girl. 


32  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

The  door  of  it  was  slamming  noisily  with  the 
roll  of  the  ship.  I  looked  inside.  The  place  was 
empty,  and  from  out  of  the  darkness  came  a  swirl 
of  water  which  ran  coldly  about  my  knees.  I 
guessed  they  had  gone  to  the  upper  deck,  and  ran 
there  myself  with  the  best  of  pace.  There  was 
a  feel  about  the  steamer  that  I  knew.  She  lay 
down  sodden  and  numb  in  the  sea,  and  rose  to 
the  waves  no  more.  I  had  felt  that  sluggish 
sullen  roll  before  on  another  ship.  We  had 
found  her  drifting,  and  boarded  her  in  mid- 
ocean,  and  had  just  time  to  leave  her  decks 
before  she  sank  down  to  the  ocean  floor.  The 
mail  steamer  was  going  to  repeat  that  dive  — 
and  she  was  carrying  a  thousand  human  lives. 

The  bridge-deck  lay  atilt  like  the  roof  of  a 
house,  and  it  was  carpeted  with  humanity. 
From  the  upper  bridge,  rockets  climbed  up  high 
into  the  night  in  one  never-ending  stream  of  yel 
low  flame.  Orders,  prayers,  shrieks,  and  threats 
were  being  hurled  about  in  every  tongue  that 
Europe  knows.  The  stoke-hold  crews,  mad  with 
fear,  were  raging  like  devils  unchained  round  the 
grips  and  chocks  of  the  lifeboats.  Naked  emi 
grants  were  with  them.  Sick  men,  who  could 
hardly  crawl,  tore  at  the  boat-awnings  with  their 
teeth.  The  ship's  officers  and  the  few  deck-hands 
were  swept  aside  like  straws. 

Then  a  bellow  from  the  steam  siren  drowned 
all  the  clamour,  and  at  that  instant  the  moon  slid 
out  and  burnt  like  a  great  white  arc-lamp  through 


RUN   DOWN  33 

a  gap  in  the  racing  clouds.  A  shout  could  not  be 
heard  above  that  din,  and  the  shouts  died  away 
whilst  the  trembling  fingers  fumbled  on  at  boat- 
grips,  and  rived  at  the  stops  on  the  falls.  Then 
the  captain  on  the  upper  bridge  let  go  the  lanyard 
of  the  siren,  and  gave  his  orders  before  the  silence 
could  be  broken. 

"  Keep  your  heads,  and  all  will  be  saved,"  he 
cried  in  German.  "  Women  stand  by  the  star 
board  boats,  and  men  away  to  port.  Boat  crews 
to  their  stations.  I  will  shoot  the  first  swine 
that  disobeys  me."  Then  he  repeated  the  words 
in  English  and  French  and  Norsk,  till  his  cry  was 
lost  once  more  in  the  raging  clamour. 

Now,  for  myself,  I  had  seen  the  uselessness  of 
thinking  about  my  own  hide  till  matters  were 
somewhat  further  advanced,  and  I  remembered 
(with  grim  amusement)  how  I  had  offered  to 
heavily  insure  two  ladies'  lives  for  the  trifling 
premium  of  two  copper  coins.  So  from  the 
moment  of  coming  out  on  deck  I  had  been  em 
ployed  in  hunting  for  these  charges  amongst  the 
mob,  and  had  not  been  sparing  vigour  in  the  pro 
cess.  There  were  nine  hundred  people  wedged 
into  one  group,  and  it  was  not  a  possible  thing  to 
go  through  these  singly.  So  I  had  gone  round 
outside  the  bulwark  rail,  occasionally  climbing  up 
by  a  stanchion  or  a  stay,  and  had  gazed  down  on 
the  huddle  of  faces  from  above  ;  and  when  I  found 
the  two  that  were  wanted  I  fought  my  way  to 
them  with  elbow  or  shut  fist  as  required.  Mrs. 


34  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

Codrington  wore  a  flannel  dressing-gown  ;  and  as 
the  other  girl  had  turned  out  in  a  singularly  be 
coming  garment  of  cotton,  I  gave  her  my  own 
pilot- jacket,  and  stole  also  for  her  (by  brute  force) 
a  spotted  carriage-rug  from  a  Polish  Jew. 

"  Now,"  I  said,  "  there's  string  in  the  pocket  of 
that  jacket,  and  this  thing  will  make  you  an  ele 
gant  skirt.  You'd  much  better  stop  being  fright 
ened,  and  then  we  can  get  along  more  comfortably. 
You  aren't  going  to  get  drowned,  or  anything 
like  it.  I've  insured  you  for  a  thousand  apiece 
to  Vanrennan,  and  I  can't  afford  to  let  you  come 
to  grief  at  that  price.  When  these  fools  have 
stopped  struggling  and  squealing,  you  shall  go 
off  in  a  big  boat  and  join  another  steamer.  We 
shall  have  ten  round  us  in  half  an  hour.  Look 
at  those  rockets." 

Mrs.  Codrington  gripped  my  arm.  "  Then 

you  think  we  have  a  chance  of "  she  began, 

and  « B'm-m-m-m "  said  the  great  steam  horn 
from  above. 

When  we  could  hear  ourselves  speak  again, 
and  whilst  the  captain  was  giving  his  orders 
from  the  upper  bridge,  the  Purser  came  to  my 
elbow. 

"  Here,  Calvert,"  he  said  in  my  ear,  "  you're  a 
man.  Those  port  boats  won't  lower  anyway : 
she's  listed  too  much  over.  I  don't  know  whether 
we  can  get  the  starboard  boats  in  the  water  with 
out  swamping  with  this  sea  running,  but  we've 
got  to  try ;  and  if  any  one  goes  off  in  them  except 


RUN   DOWN  35 

the  boat  crews,  it's  got  to  be  the  women  and  kids. 
Same  old  yarn,  y'  know.  So  you've  got  to  peg 
out  anyway,  and  you  may  as  well  do  it  in  a  way 
that'll  make  you  respect  yourself.  Ah,  would 
you  ? "  He  knocked  down  a  frantic  German 
who  was  battling  his  way  towards  one  of  the 
starboard  boats  with  a  revolver  outstretched. 
He  wrenched  away  the  weapon,  and  gave  it  me. 
"  Here's  a  gun,  old  man.  Just  you  wire  in  and 
murder  the  swine  if  they  try  to  swamp  you. 
They'll  soon  see  those  port  boats  won't  lower, 
and  they'll  be  back  here  in  a  minute." 

Now  a  peculiar  feeling  had  come  over  me.  I 
had  made  up  my  mind  that  I  had  got  to  die,  and 
didn't  waste  time  by  being  sorry  for  myself  over 
it.  All  my  brain  was  turned  on  two  objects. 
First,  I  had  got  to  keep  my  ticket  clean  by  see 
ing  that  the  two  girls  I  was  looking  after  were 
sent  away  clear  of  the  mess.  And  second,  I 
wanted  to  leave  a  very  red  mark  on  the  cowards 
who  were  wasting  other  people's  lives  because 
they  could  not  save  their  own.  That  last  wish 
amounted  to  a  mania.  I  was  ashamed  of  being 
a  man  whilst  some  of  those  brutes  lived  and  could 
call  themselves  men  also. 

One  of  the  starboard  boats  had  been  lowered 
already,  packed  with  people.  But  before  she  was 
in  the  water  the  after  fall  had  jammed  in  the 
block,  and  because  the  other  took  charge,  she 
tilted  bow-downwards,  and  spilt  her  wretched 
freight  into  the  charging  seas.  Another  boat  was 


36  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

swung  out,  and  lay  beating  against  the  rail  as 
the  steamer  rolled.  I  would  have  hustled  my 
two  charges  into  her,  but  she  was  crowded  in  an 
instant  and  lowered  away.  She  took  the  water 
safely,  shoved  off,  and  with  oars  straddling  out 
on  either  side,  crawled  away  over  the  inky  water 
like  some  uncouth  insect. 

Then  came  the  rush.  The  list  had  grown  till 
the  port  boats  hung  inboard  against  their  davits, 
and  the  waiting  crowds  beside  them  saw  that 
that  road  of  escape  was  cut  off  for  good.  In  half 
the  tongues  of  Pentecost  they  screamed  into  the 
windy  night  that  the  ship  was  sinking,  sinking  — 
and  each  brute  amongst  them  thought  that  his 
own  life  was  worth  more  than  all  the  honour 
and  the  wealth  the  world  combined.  They 
poured  down  the  slope  of  the  decks  in  a  raving 
horde  —  Polish  and  Russian  Jews,  Hungarian 
peasants  fleeing  from  the  conscription,  Italian 
thieves,  Belgian  stokers  —  a  foul  gush  from  the 
dregs  of  Europe ;  and  with  them  came  men  who 
ought  to  have  known  better,  but  who  had  gone 
mad  also,  smitten  by  this  same  infection  of 
terror. 

I  had  slung  the  two  women  on  to  the  floor 
grating  of  No.  3  lifeboat,  and  stood  with  my  back 
against  the  gunwale.  One  of  the  mates,  a  gigan 
tic  Swede,  rose  up  beside  me,  his  teeth  gritting 
with  fury  and  a  belaying  pin  gripped  in  his 
hand. 

Three  deck-hands  wrere  sweating  and  swearing 


RUN   DOWN  37 

at  the  falls,  getting  the  boat  lifted  right  off  her 
chocks  and  swung  outboard. 

The  other  women  on  the  decks  were  knocked 
down  and  stamped  on,  and  the  mob  of  men  leaped 
at  the  boat.  It  was  no  time  for  words.  The 
mate  and  I  hit  out  at  every  face  we  could  reach 
with  savage  fury,  but  none  turned  to  hit  again. 
They  scrabbled  at  the  boat's  gunwales  with  their 
hands,  and  those  behind  tore  the  leaders  back. 
I  could  have  beat  in  their  faces  in  my  hate ;  but 
—  I  could  not  bring  myself  to  shoot :  there  was 
nothing  there  worthy  of  a  bullet. 

The  boat  was  lifted  from  its  bed,  and  swung 
outboard.  The  steamer  had  ceased  to  roll,  and 
the  seas  were  coming  green  on  her  bridge-deck 
rail.  The  boat  was  floated  almost  before  the 
falls  were  let  go,  and  a  wave  came  up  and 
swayed  her  clear.  The  crowd  shrieked  and 
drew  back  up  the  slanting  decks. 

I  leaned  up  against  a  davit,  my  breath  return 
ing  to  me  in  laboured  pants.  But  the  Swedish 
mate  left  me,  and  if  ever  murder  showed  in  a 
man's  eye,  I  saw  it  gleaming  from  his  then ;  and 
shrieks  coming  through  the  darkness  told  what 
his  fury  was  doing.  He  at  any  rate,  I  told  my 
self,  would  die  warm. 

But  the  lust  for  maiming  had  left  me.  The 
last  of  the  boats  had  gone,  and  the  women  and 
children  who  were  left  had  got  to  die  with  us 
men,  and  with  those  who  were  infinitely  less  than 
men.  The  rockets  were  still  spouting  up  in  un- 


38  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

wearied  series  from  the  upper  bridge,  and  once  I 
saw  the  Purser  pass  me,  jaunty  as  of  yore,  with 
a  lit  cigar  in  his  fingers,  and  an  assurance  be 
tween  his  teeth  that  all  would  be  well.  But  I 
heeded  him  little.  The  chill  of  Death  was  nip 
ping  me  with  its  agues,  and  the  hopeless  minutes 
were  dragging  out  intolerably.  With  a  lifebelt  I 
might  .  .  .  but  no :  there  were  women  left,  and 
I  had  got  to  stay. 

Then  of  a  sudden  there  burst  out  a  roar,  and 
a  clang  of  iron,  and  a  gush  of  scalding  steam  ; 
and  the  decks  ripped  and  splintered,  and  the 
steam  rushed  down  in  grey,  peeling  clouds.  No, 
not  that  death.  I  vaulted  the  rail,  and  sank. 

The  instinct  of  the  swimmer  is  curious.  I  had 
gone  over  the  side  quite  satisfied  that  escape  was 
hopeless,  and  intending  to  drown  with  one  long 
plunge.  But  no  sooner  did  the  icy  water  thunder 
in  my  ears  than  the  old  instinct  made  me  strike 
out  for  the  surface.  But  I  could  not  reach  it.  I 
swam  on  for  what  seemed  to  be  minutes,  hours, 
years,  thousands  of  years ;  my  arms  aching,  the 
veins  like  to  burst  through  my  skin ;  and  then  it 
came  upon  me  that  the  steamer  had  sunk,  and  I 
was  being  dragged  in  her  swirl  down,  down,  down, 
to  the  dark  sea  floor ;  down,  down,  where  it  was 
too  cold  —  down  —  down. 

I  opened  my  eyes  and  blinked ;  blinked  again, 
and  saw  dimly  the  rough  sea  living-room  of  fishers. 
It  was  wainscoted  with  bunks  round  to  the  rudder 


RUN   DOWN  39 

case,  and  on  the  forward  bulkhead  was  a  fireplace 
resplendent  with  brass.  I  imagined  I  was  in  one 
of  the  bunks,  but  was  not  very  certain  about  it, 
and  so  coughed  inquiringly.  Somebody  came  to 
my  side.  I  pondered  awhile,  and  then  remarked, 
"  I  seem,  somehow,  to  know  that  coat." 

"  It's  yours,"  said  the  some  one.  "  Don't  you 
remember  ?  I'm  Mabel  Vanrennan." 

This  was  more  satisfactory.  I  woke  further, 
and  inquired,  "  Where's  the  other  —  Mrs.  —  er  — 
I  forget  ? " 

"  Codrington,"  said  a  voice  from  one  of  the 
bunks.  "  Here." 

I  was  getting  on.  "  I'm  afraid  you  must  have 
lost  all  your  clothes  ?  "  was  the  next  thing  that 
occurred  to  me. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  voice,  "  and  such  a  lovely 
diamond  star ! " 

Then  came  a  torrent  of  sobbing,  and,  between 
sobs :  "  Oh  !  how  could  I  be  so  horrid  as  to  think 
of  such  a  thing  now  ?  There  are  only  sixty 
picked  up,  they  say.  And  all  those  other  poor 
people  lost !  Isn't  it  awful  to  think  about  ?  " 

"  Very  probably,"  I  said.  "  But  we've  saved 
our  own  skins,  and  I  don't  think  we've  anything 
to  be  ashamed  of.  It  wasn't  my  fault  that  some 
one  gathered  me  up,  though." 

Then  a  man  came  in  and  stared  at  me  thought 
fully —  a  fisherman,  in  clumsy  sea  boots  and 
brown-patched  oilskin. 

"  Closish  squeak  you've  had,  mister,"  said  he, 


40  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

slowly.  "  We  just  passed  that  other  boat  what 
run  you  down.  She'd  about  seven  foot  of  her 
bow  gone,  and  looked  pretty  sick,  I  tell  you. 
We  hailed  her  to  know  if  she  wanted  anything ; 
but  she  said  <  No.'  Got  her  steering  gear  fixed 
up  again,  and  was  going  to  put  into  Ports 
mouth.  She's  a  Welsh  collier  bound  there. 
Rum  go  this  has  been.  Where  was  your  steamer 
hit  ?  " 

"  Haven't  a  notion." 

"  Well,  what  were  her  water-tight  bulkheads 
doing  ?  " 

"  Very  sorry,  but  I  can't  tell  you." 

"  H'm  !  "  said  the  man.  «  Then  what  do  you 
know  about  it  ?  " 

"  Nothing,"  said  I,  "  except  that  I'm  here  now, 
and  that  just  now  I  imagined  I  was  drowned." 

"Well,"  said  the  man,  "you  won't  do  much 
towards  dirtying  any  poor  beast  of  a  sailor's  ticket 
at  the  inquiry,  that's  one  blessing.  I'll  send  you 
in  a  can  of  tea,  and  then  you'd  better  sleep. 
We're  standing  in  for  Penzance  to  bring  the  news, 
because  there  ought  to  be  a  reward  kicking  about, 
and  by  the  time  you  wake  we  should  be  there. 
So  long ! " 


Ill 

THE  FINGER  OF  HANKIN 


HE  was  called  William  Edward  Hankin  Seale, 
and  by  giving  him  the  name  of  Hankin,  his  god 
fathers  and  godmothers  considered  that  they  had 
provided  him  with  brilliant  prospects.  Where 
fore  they  economised,  and  forbore  to  add  the 
usual  christening  mug  and  silver  feeding  tackle. 
In  after  years  William  Edward  Seale  had  it  con 
stantly  repeated  to  him  that  there  was  a  man 
called  Hankin  who  lived  on  a  place  called  the 
West  Coast  of  Africa,  where  he  had  amassed 
wealth,  and  was  still  amassing. 

In  his  school  days  William  Edward  Seale  said 
little  about  the  vague  Hankin.  He  learned  that 
West  Africa  was  a  considerable  distance  from 
Charterhouse  in  miles  ;  that  the  climate  was  hot, 
through  some  connection  which  it  had  with  a 
thing  called  the  equator,  upon  which  the  sun  ap 
parently  traversed  as  a  bead  does  upon  a  wire ; 
and  that  the  Coast  produced  gold  dust,  ivory,  and 
monkeys.  Afterwards  he  got  hold  of  The  Cruise 
of  the  Midge,  and  added  to  this  list  of  products, 
slaves,  fever,  sunstroke,  and  picturesque  fighting. 

41 


42  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

He  pictured  Hankin  as  a  king  of  countless  negroes, 
who  owned  a  long  black  schooner  for  nefarious 
purposes,  and  who  went  out  for  rides  on  his  own 
private  elephant  and  ate  cocoa-nuts  free  of  cost. 
He  rather  envied  the  old  gentleman,  but  he  did 
not  swagger  about  him  then.  Later,  however,  he 
did  both. 

He  went  from  Charterhouse  to  a  bank  in 
London,  where  he  laboured  easily,  but  acquired 
no  unwieldy  prosperity.  He  lived  slightly  beyond 
his  income,  but  kept  the  leeway  in  check  by 
waving  Hankin  before  the  eyes  of  his  duns.  He 
pointed  out  that  the  West  Coast  was  notoriously 
unhealthy  and  that  Hankin  could  not  live  much 
longer.  He  was  generous  in  the  matter  of  inter 
est,  too.  He  said  that  when  he  put  on  a  black 
tie  for  Hankin,  they  would  see  that  there  was 
nothing  mean  about  him  when  he  came  to  pay 
for  accommodation.  So  he  lived  on ;  and  the 
rumours  of  Hankin  provided  him  gratis  with 
dances  and  theatre  paper ;  and  dinners  and  Sun 
day  river-parties  were  bestowed  upon  him  by 
people  who  had  marriageable  daughters.  "  It's 
no  use  your  asking  me  to  pay  for  anything,"  he 
would  say  cheerfully.  "  I've  barely  a  sixpence 
beyond  my  salary  —  at  present." 

Occasionally  he  came  across  some  man  who  had 
been  in  the  Colonial  Service  or  in  a  trading  house 
on  the  West  Coast,  and  asked  about  his  connec 
tion,  who,  he  stated,  was  some  sort  of  a  nine 
teenth  cousin.  But  none  of  the  Coasters  ever 


THE  FINGER  OF   HANKIN  43 

knew  about  Hankin,  or  (what  is  perhaps  more 
accurate)  they  never  said  they  knew.  So  as  far 
as  William  Edward  Seale  was  concerned,  Hankin 
remained  vague  and  nebulous ;  but  Seale  never 
lost  faith  in  his  riches  and  dutiful  cousinly  affec 
tion  (as  bespoken  by  the  afore-mentioned  god 
parents)  ;  and  calculated  on  the  approaching 
windfall  with  certainty  and  sweet  delight. 

It  was  the  coming  of  Captain  Charteris  with 
Nancy  that  gave  him  his  first  definite  idea  of 
Hankin.  Charteris  wired  from  Liverpool  to  ask 
for  an  interview,  and  was  invited  to  come  up 
and  dine  at  the  club  and  talk  matters  over  there. 
Charteris  came,  and  enjoyed  his  meal,  as  most 
men  do  after  a  course  of  Coast  and  steamer  fare ; 
but  he  talked  whilst  he  was  eating,  and  what  he 
said  did  woful  damage  to  Scale's  appetite.  After 
wards  they  went  to  a  quiet  corner  of  the  billiard- 
room  for  coffee  and  cognac  ;  and  between  whiffs  of 
a  good  cigar,  Charteris  went  on  with  his  tale : — 

"  We  aren't  mighty  particular  out  there  as  a 
general  rule,  y'  know,  but  that  was  a  bit  too 
blackguardly  and  low  for  anything.  They  kicked 
him  out  of  the  Service,  of  course ;  and  they  told 
him  that  if  he  didn't  clear  out  of  the  Colony  one 
time,  they'd  prosecute  him  to  boot,  and  he'd  get 
sent  home  to  do  five  years  for  an  absolute  cert. 
So  he  cleared ;  and  went  to  Lagos." 

"  But  he  was  very  rich  at  that  time,  wasn't 
he  ?  "  Seale  asked. 

"Rich?     He  owned   the  finest  assortment  of 


44  ATOMS   OP  EMPIRE 

debts  of  any  man  in  Accra.  They  had  to  pay 
his  steamer-fare  to  get  him  away.  I  don't  believe 
the  old  scamp  ever  did  have  a  cent  beyond  his 
pay,  but  he'd  a  knack  of  hinting  that  he  was  a 
millionaire,  and  people  sometimes  believed  him. 
He  blarneyed  himself  into  a  trading  house  in 
Lagos  on  the  strength  of  swaggering  about  money, 
which  of  course  he  hadn't  got,  and  he  might  have 
worked  himself  back  into  a  comfortable  position 
if  he  had  only  chosen  to  keep  straight.  But  that 
was  not  his  way.  He  hung  on  there  for  a  couple 
of  years  till  he'd  got  his  fingers  well  into  the  pie, 
and  then  one  fine  day  he  pulled  out  all  the  plums 
that  were  available  and  skipped  by  the  British 
African  boat  to  Grand  Canary.  He'd  about  a 
thousand  pounds  all  told  in  his  pocket  when  he 
landed  at  Las  Palmas,  and  on  the  strength  of  it 
he  married  that  pretty  little  woman  I  was  telling 
you  about,  who  died  when  Nancy  was  born." 

"  After  which  he  took  the  child  back  to  the 
Coast  again,  and  brought  her  up  like  a  savage  ?  " 

"  No,  he  didn't ;  and  that's  about  the  only  good 
point  I  ever  heard  the  old  ruffian  accused  of.  He 
left  her  in  Grand  Canary,  farmed  her  out  (don't 
you  call  it  ?)  in  a  village  just  outside  Las  Palmas, 
and  went  back  again  to  the  Coast  to  find  money 
for  the  up-keep  of  her.  It  was  a  pretty  plucky 
thing  to  do,  because  several  gaols  were  waiting 
for  him  anxiously,  and  he'd  dirtied  his  ticket  so 
thoroughly  up  and  down,  that  no  white  man 
would  touch  him  with  the  end  of  a  swizzle-stick. 


THE  FINGER  OF   HANKIN  45 

What  he  did  was  to  steam  down  coast  to  Lagos 
Roads,  change  over  to  the  branch-boat  and  get 
across  the  bar,  and  then  slip  away  from  her  by 
native  canoe.  He  didn't  land  on  the  island  at  all. 
He  went  off  over  the  lagoon,  and  then  on,  right 
up  to  the  back  of  the  Egba  country.  There  was 
a  hot  war  on  then  with  the  Yorubas,  and  it  was 
about  nine  to  one  got  knocked  on  the  head  and 
chopped ;  but  somehow  the  old  scamp  slipped 
through,  and  then  he  started  in  to  collect  rubber. 
He  got  a  mud-and-grass  hut  built  and  lived  on 
native  chop,  and  must  have  had  a  pretty  tough 
time  of  it  at  first,  because  all  the  roads  were 
blocked,  and  he  could  neither  get  <  trade  '  up-coun 
try  or  send  his  rubber  down.  But  after  a  bit, 
things  went  better  with  him.  He  got  his  rubber 
carried  down  to  Lagos,  contrived  to  lay  hold  of 
a  few  domestic  slaves  to  do  his  work,  and  was 
able  to  send  remittances  to  the  woman  who 
farmed  Nancy  outside  Las  Palmas.  If  he'd  stuck 
to  what  he'd  made  then,  he  might  have  lived 
pretty  comfortably,  because  trade-gin  makes  tol 
erable  cocktails  when  you're  used  to  it,  and  up 
in  that  part  of  the  bush  you  can  always  get 
chickens  and  mutton  if  you  care  to  pay.  But  he 
didn't  do  that :  he  stuck  to  the  cheap  native  chop  ; 
and  when  he  had  fever  he  grudged  himself  pills 
and  quinine :  it  took  him  all  he  knew  to  scrape 
up  eighty  pounds  a  year  for  Nancy." 

"  Oh,   my   hat !  "   said  Seale  ;  "  and  I  thought 
that  man  was  a  millionaire." 


46  ATOMS  OF  EMPIKE 

"  I  wish,"  said  Charteris,  "  you  could  have 
seen  him  when  I  did.  I  was  up  at  the  back  of 
the  Egba  country  with  a  Commission,  and  we 
picked  up  the  wood-smoke  of  his  cooking  one 
day  in  the  dusk.  We  had  missed  the  village  we 
were  trying  for,  and  had  no  fancy  for  collecting 
fever  by  squatting  out  in  the  bush.  So  we 
pushed  on,  and  came  upon  a  few  chimbeques  in 
a  clearing.  A  thing  that  called  itself  a  white 
man  was  in  one  of  them,  and  that  was  Hankin. 
He  was  down  with  black-water  fever,  and  when 
the  doctor  had  done  a  turn  with  him,  I  went  in 
to  stand  my  watch.  He  wasn't  an  inviting 
spectacle,  and  if  you  knew  what  black-water 
fever  is  —  which  you  don't  —  you'd  understand 
why.  But  he  was  a  white  man,  or  had  been 
white  once,  and  out  there  one  feels  a  sort  of  kin 
ship  to  one's  colour.  So  I  sat  by  the  poor  devil 
and  heard  his  yarn ;  and  when  he  asked  me  a 
bit  of  a  favour,  I  couldn't  very  well  refuse  it, 
because,  you  see,  he  asked  when  he  was  in  the 
very  act  of  pegging  out.  He  wanted  me  to  pick 
up  this  youngster  of  his  as  I  was  going  home, 
and  hand  her  over  to  you." 

«  But  why  to  me  of  all  people  ?  " 

"  Hankin  said,"  replied  the  other,  stolidly,  "that 
he  knew  you  thought  you'd  some  claim  on  him, 
and  that  therefore  he  considered  he'd  a  claim  on 
you.  I  said  I  didn't  see  the  force  of  his  argu 
ment.  He  said  that  was  his  palaver,  and  would 
I  do  what  I  was  asked,  or  have  a  very  nasty 


THE  FINGER  OF   HANKIN  47 

taste  left  on  my  conscience  by  refusing  ?  So  of 
course  I  was  forced  to  say  '  Yes,'  and  there  was 
an  end  of  the  matter.  The  Hausas  buried  him 
at  sunrise,  and  we  marched  on." 

"  But  what  on  earth  am  I  to  do  with  the  brat  ? 
I'm  making  a  poor  enough  show  of  keeping  my 
self.  I  had  —  er  —  expectations  once,  but  they 
haven't  come  off  yet,  and  I'm  more  largely  dipped 
than  I  care  to  think  about.  I'm  only  a  poor 
brute  of  a  bank  clerk  with  half-nothing  a  year 
by  way  of  pay.  It  strikes  me  you've  done  some 
body  a  pretty  mean  turn." 

"  How  could  I  help  myself  ?  "  said  Charteris, 
with  a  shrug.  "  I  didn't  know  you  from  Adam, 
and  Hankin  shoved  the  job  on  to  me  at  a  peculiar 
time.  You  haven't  seen  a  man  die  the  way  he 
did,  in  a  bush  hut,  with  no  one  round  but  savages, 
or  else  you'd  understand.  I  can  quite  imagine 
it's  an  unpleasant  surprise  to  you ;  but  you 
know  —  you  needn't  take  over  the  youngster." 

"  What  ?  "  said  Seale,  quickly,  "  you'll  keep  her 
on  yourself  ?  " 

Captain  Charteris  laughed  harshly.  "  I  shall 
drag  out  my  own  leave  here  in  England  mostly 
on  tick,  and  then  get  back  to  the  Coast  again. 
Man,  I  haven't  thirty  pounds  in  the  world.  I 
couldn't  afford  to  be  saddled  with  a  dog.  I  sup 
pose  it  comes  to  this :  we  shall  both  repudiate 
her." 

«  And  the  result  will  be  ?  " 

"  Workhouse,  I  suppose." 


48  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

«  What  a  ghastly  thing  to  think  about ! " 

"My  dear  sir,  we  can  gather  comfort  from 
knowing  it's  no  fault  of  ours.  It's  a  case  of 
'sins  of  the  fathers.'  Hankin  shouldn't  have 
been  a  blackguard;  or  if  he  was,  he  shouldn't 
have  married ;  or  if  he  did  marry,  he  shouldn't 
have  allowed  Nancy  to  step  out  into  the  world. 
If  he's  any  sense  of  decency  left,  Hankin  ought  to 
be  squirming  in  Hell  this  minute  at  the  thought 
of  the  mischief  he's  brought  about." 

Seale  hit  the  table  in  front  of  him  so  that  the 
cigar  ashes  jumped. 

"  This  is  a  horrible  business  anyway,"  he  said, 
"  but  it's  got  to  be  put  an  end  to.  The  more  we 
think  over  it,  the  worse  it  gets.  You  and  I  have 
no  legal  responsibility ;  so  we'll  just  hand  over 
this  calamitous  brat  to  the  police,  and  shuffle 
clear  of  the  whole  matter.  Where  have  you 
stowed  her  ?  " 

«  At  the  '  Metropole.'  We'll  go  there  one-time 
if  you  like." 

"  Yes,"  said  Seale,  and  strode  noisily  out  of  the 
room. 


They  exchanged  only  one  remark  on  the  way 
across. 

"  She's  a  taking  little  beggar,"  said  Charteris, 
"  though  I  don't  think  she  cares  much  for  me." 
Upon  which  Seale  broke  out  against  him  with 


THE   FINGER   OF   HANKIN  49 

sudden  violence  and  profanity,  and  insisted  on 
the  subject  being  dropped.  And  after  that  they 
marched  down  Northumberland  Avenue  in 
silence. 

"  It's  right  up  at  the  top,"  said  Charteris,  as 
they  walked  into  the  hall  of  the  hotel.  "  I  econo 
mised  in  the  matter  of  rooms.  So  we  may  as 
well  go  up  by  the  lift.  Shall  I  tell  the  porter  to 
have  a  four-wheeler  ready  in  five  minutes?" 

"  Oh,  do  anything  you  like,"  said  Seale.  "  No, 
you  needn't  bother  about  that  now,  though. 
There  are  cabs  always  ready.  Here,  come  along ; 
there's  a  lift  just  going  up." 

Two  minutes  later  Captain  Charteris  opened  a 
door  and  showed  Seale  a  pretty  child  of  six  asleep 
in  a  deep  armchair.  She  woke  as  they  came  into 
the  room,  nodded  to  Charteris,  and  stared  at  his 
companion  critically.  For  once  in  his  life  Seale 
was  tongue-tied  before  a  lady.  He  somehow  or 
other  felt  unutterably  mean,  though  (as  he  care 
fully  explained  to  himself)  there  was  no  just  cause 
for  this  feeling.  And  as  an  effect,  all  initiatory 
small  talk  left  him.  There  was  a  long  silence  in 
the  room,  and  it  was  the  child  who  first  broke  it. 

"  You  must  be  the  gentleman,"  said  she  to 
Seale,  "  who  is  going  to  take  care  of  me  ?  " 

"  No,"  he  answered  sullenly,  "  I  am  not." 

"  Oh,"  said  Nancy,  leaning  back  in  her  chair 
again,  "  I  am  sorry  for  that." 

Seale  could  not  help  asking  "  Why  ?  " 

"  Because,"  came  the  answer,  "  I  like  you.     I 


50  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

like  you  better  than  him,"  she  added  with  a  nod 
across  at  her  steamer  escort. 

"  This  is  gratifying,"  said  Charteris.  "  But  I 
am  afraid,  young  lady,  that  it  is  a  rather  useless 
avowal.  Now  we've  come  to  take  you  out  for  a 
drive  somewhere.  So  suppose  you  put  on  your 
hat  and  jacket." 

"  Can't,"  said  Nancy,  cheerfully.  "  I've  not 
begun  to  dress  myself  yet.  I'm  not  growed  up 
enough  for  that.  But  you,"  she  said  with  a  nod 
at  Scale,  "  can  put  on  my  things  for  me  if  you 
like.  They're  all  lying  there  on  that  sofa.  Shoes 
first." 

"  Oh,  look  here,"  said  Charteris,  "  we'd  better 
ring  for  the  stewardess  —  chambermaid,  I  mean." 

"  No,"  said  Seale ;  "  I  may  as  well  do  what  I 
can  for  the  kid.  Hang  it,  man  !  let  me  do  some 
thing.  God  knows  I'm  feeling  brute  enough  as 
it  is." 

So  with  infinite  pains  and  clumsiness  he  put  on 
Nancy's  outdoor  raiment,  and  when  he  had  fin 
ished,  he  stepped  back  to  overlook  his  handiwork. 

«  Well  ?  "  she  said. 

«  What  ?  "  he  asked. 

»  Don't  I  look  nice  ?  " 

"  Ye-es,  I  suppose  you  do.  Yes,  distinctly  you 
do." 

"  Then  what  are  you  waiting  for  ?  " 

"  I  don't  understand." 

"The  others,"  said  Nancy,  judicially,  "when 
they  dressed  me,  and  when  I  was  good,  and 


THE  FINGER  OF   HANKIN  51 

when  I  looked  nice,  always  gave  me  a  kiss  to 
finish  up." 

Charteris  laughed. 

Scale  turned  on  him  savagely  with  a  "  Drop 
that !  "  Then  he  stooped  and  took  hold  of  the 
child's  hand  and  said,  "  Come  on." 

"  Kiss  first,"  said  Nancy.     "  I've  been  good." 

Shamefacedly  Seale  pecked  at  her  with  his 
mouth,  and  Charteris  laughed  again.  "  I  wouldn't 
do  it,"  said  Charteris,  "  if  I  were  you.  That  sort 
of  thing  leaves  a  nasty  taste  afterwards  —  when 
you  remember  she  is  rigged  in  workhouse  uniform, 
you  know." 

Seale  kissed  the  child  again,  this  time  more 
scientifically.  "  Now,  look  here,"  he  said,  "  we'll 
just  drop  that  foolishness,  please,  for  always. 
If  you  think  I'm  going  to  let  this  jolly  little 
beggar  go  to  the  parish  pauper  shop,  you're  badly 
mistaken.  What  will  become  of  her  in  the  end, 
I'm  damned  if  I  know ;  but  for  the  present,  and 
until  something  turns  up,  I'm  going  to  take  her 
off  to  my  own  rooms ;  and  my  landlady  and  I'll 
dry-nurse  her  between  us.  We  shall  probably 
make  a  poor  enough  job  of  it,  because  funds  are 
very  scarce ;  but  I  guess  we're  about  the  only 
opening  Nancy  has  before  her  at  present.  Come 
along,  Nancy,  and  we'll  drive  off  in  a  rubber- 
tired  hansom  to  my  palatial  chambers." 

"  I  say,"  said  Charteris,  as  they  were  going 
back  along  the  corridors,  "  you're  rather  a  good 
sort,  you  know." 


52  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

Seale  turned  upon  him  with  a  sudden  glow  of 
passion.  "  I'm  about  the  most  unlucky  brute  in 
London  this  minute,"  he  cried,  "  and  if  there's  one 
man  I  ought  to  hate,  that's  you.  You've  landed 
me  in  the  devil  of  a  mess,  and  there's  no  getting 
out  of  it.  You  knew  what  she  was ;  you'd  seen 
her ;  and  I  don't  think  you  did  the  fair  thing  not 
telling  me  beforehand.  Of  course,  I  thought  that 
being  Hankin's  kid,  she'd  be  —  well,  just  fit  for 
the  workhouse.  How  was  I  to  know  that  she 
was  like  this  ?  " 

"  You're  a  bit  unreasonable." 

"  I'm  not  going  to  argue  with  you,"  said  Seale. 
"  The  thing's  done,  and  I've  got  no  use  for  you 
any  further." 

"  I  don't  quite  take  your  meaning." 

"  Well,  it's  this,  Captain  Charteris  :  what  little 
I've  seen  of  you  will  last  me  the  rest  of  my  time. 
You  may  say  good-bye  to  Nancy  if  you  like,  but 
you  needn't  bother  to  shake  hands  with  me.  I 
wish  you  were  at  the  devil." 


in 

When  a  young  man  of  twenty-three  deliber 
ately  adds  to  his  bachelor  household  an  attractive 
young  lady  of  six  summers,  who  speaks  foreign 
languages  and  possesses  a  history,  attention  is 
naturally  drawn  to  the  performance.  Scale's 
acquaintances,  especially  the  feminine  portion  of 
them,  were  first  curious,  and  then  shocked ;  and 


THE  FINGER  OF  HANKIN  53 

out  of  sheer  justice  to  Nancy  he  had  to  tell  one 
or  two  of  them  the  true  story  of  Hankin.  The 
news  spread  through  that  small  fraction  of  Lon 
don  which  knew  Seale,  and  the  regard  with 
which  it  had  previously  regarded  him  changed 
with  a  very  short  prelude.  It  is  no  use  giving 
dinners  to  a  young  man  with  no  expectations 
who  has  deliberately  chosen  to  cumber  himself 
with  a  scamp's  brat ;  and  if  you  have  daughters, 
it  is  a  mad  thing  to  ask  to  your  dances  a 
wretched  fellow  whom  it  would  be  the  utmost 
misfortune  for  your  daughter  to  fall  in  love  with. 
And  so  the  invitations  ceased  with  brisk  unanim 
ity  ;  and  as  Seale  had  been  accustomed  to  much 
going  out  and  about,  he  saw  fit  to  do  it  now  on 
his  own  resources,  which  of  course  cost  money. 

How  he  managed  to  keep  going  for  the  next 
seven  years  is  a  matter  best  known  to  himself 
and  Nancy,  who  at  an  early  stage  was  initiated 
into  the  art  of  circumventing  res  angusta  domi 
and  living  at  the  rate  of  twice  one's  income. 
But  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  enjoyment  to 
be  derived  from  sailing  close  to  the  wind,  and 
a  camaraderie  grew  up  between  the  two  of  them 
that  was  very  pleasant  in  its  completeness.  At 
the  same  time,  that  he  might  not  accuse  him 
self  of  hoodwinking  youth,  Seale  used  to  instil 
morality  as  he  went  along. 

"  Y'  know  we're  awful  blackguards,  old  lady, 
having  things  and  not  paying  for  them  the  way 
we  do,"  he  would  say ;  "  and  I  ought  to  be 


54  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

kicked  for  showing  a  kid  like  you  the  style  it's 
managed." 

Upon  which  Nancy  would  retort :  «  All  right, 
Ted,  I  quite  understand.  But  it's  me  that's  to 
blame,  not  you.  If  there  was  no  me  to  fritter 
money  over,  you'd  live  on  your  pay  and  have  a 
lot  left  over.  So  as  far  as  you're  concerned,  it 
doesn't  count." 

And  then  after  Seale  had  solemnly  assured  her 
that  she  was  completely  wrong,  and  that  he  (by 
reason  of  his  seniority)  carried  the  sin  of  the  pair 
of  them  on  his  own  shoulders,  they  would  go  off 
to  a  theatre,  or  West  for  dinner,  by  way  of  get 
ting  rid  of  the  taste  of  the  lecture. 

But  this  style  of  living,  ingenious  though  it 
may  be,  is  liable  to  be  brought  to  an  end  from 
the  outside ;  and  when  the  conclusion  did  finally 
come,  Scale's  only  matter  for  surprise  was  that  it 
had  not  arrived  several  years  earlier. 

"  Old  lady,"  said  Seale,  one  day  when  he  had 
lit  up  his  cigar  after  dinner,  in  the  big  chair 
beside  the  fireplace,  "  the  bank's  given  me  the 
chuck." 

"  Phe-ew  ! "  said  Nancy. 

"  At  least  they've  told  me  of  another  billet 
that's  open,  and  said  that  if  I  don't  resign  nicely 
and  take  it  with  a  smile,  I  shall  probably  find 
myself  out  of  a  job  altogether.  The  manager 
seemed  to  think  that  my  ideas  of  personal  finance 
were  too  florid  to  be  quite  healthy  in  a  mere 
bank  clerk." 


THE  FINGER  OF  HANKIN  55 

"  Where's  the  new  billet  ?  " 

Seale  laughed.  "  In  a  place  you've  heard  of 
before  —  Lagos.  One  year  on  duty  and  six 
months'  leave,  with  steamer  fare  paid  home  and 
back.  Three  hundred  a  year  and  allowances  to 
draw  all  the  time." 

"  My  !  "  said  Nancy,  "  what  a  lot !  It's  a  heap 
more  than  you're  getting  now.  We'll  go,  eh  ?  " 

«  You  won't,  anyway." 

«  Why  not  ?  Don't  we  do  everything  together  ? 
I  shall  come  and  keep  house  for  you,  and  save 
you  lots.  You  can't  keep  house  a  bit,  Ted." 

"  Shall  have  to.  I Nancy,  come  here, 

old  girl." 

Nancy  came  across  the  hearthrug,  and  sat  her 
self  upon  his  knee,  and  lay  back  luxuriously. 

"  Nancy,  I've  been  an  awful  brute  to  you. 
I've  kept  you  here  because  I  liked  having  you, 
when  you  ought  to  have  been  away  at  school  with 
other  girls,  learning  things." 

"  I  have  been  learning,"  said  Nancy,  stoutly. 
"  I've  had  lessons  with  you  nearly  every  day. 
I  can  read,  and  write,  and  mend  socks,  and 
do  accounts,  and  order  a  dinner.  Isn't  that 
enough  ?  " 

"  Nowhere  near,"  said  Seale.  "  You're  grow 
ing  up,  you  see.  You're  thirteen  now,  and  you'll 
be  in  long  frocks  in  a  year  or  so,  with  your  hair 
in  a  knob,  and  the  Lord  knows  what  else ;  and 
there  are  things  a  girl  ought  to  learn  that  I  can't 
teach ;  and  —  well,  I'm  a  dam'  bad  lot,  old  lady, 


56  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

and  if  you  go  away  to  a  decent  school,  you'll 
learn  that  is  so." 

"  Ter-waddle,"  said  Nancy.  «  Didn't  you  sad 
dle  yourself  with  me,  and  doesn't  that  prove  you 
to  be  the  best  man  in  the  world  ?  'Tisn't  as  if 
I'd  never  seen  any  others  of  the  boys.  I've  met 
'em,  lots  of  'em,  and  that's  why  I  know  what  I 
say's  right.  And  besides,  it  would  never  make 
any  difference  to  me  whether  you  were  the  big 
gest  sweep  on  earth,  or  the  biggest  angel.  You're 
just  my  Ted,  and  that's  all  I  care  about." 

"  Yes  ;  but,  Nancy,  you  couldn't  go  to  the  Gold 
Coast,  anyway.  You'd  lose  all  your  good  looks 
for  one  thing " 

«  Don't  care." 

"  But  I  do.  I'm  proud  of  them,  if  you  are  not. 
And  besides,  you'd  spoil  all  the  arrangements. 
This  way  :  you  see  I  get  allowances  for  one  only. 
If  you  went,  there'd  be  your  steamer  fare  to  pay, 
and  an  establishment  to  keep  up.  And  that 
would  run  away  with  all  the  cash.  Whereas  if 
I  go  alone,  I  shall  get  everything  paid ;  come 
back  with  all  my  screw  saved  ;  and  then  you 
and  I  can  spend  the  six  months'  leave  on  the 
jolliest  spree  imaginable." 

But  Nancy  did  not  see  it,  and  said  so  with 
point  and  argument.  However,  for  once  in  his 
life  Seale  was  firm.  He  had  a  feeling  that  he 
would  have  a  much  better  chance,  and  a  much 
better  time  of  it,  if  he  started  this  new  life  on 
the  Coast  as  a  bachelor  without  encumbrances. 


THE   FINGER   OF  HANKIN  57 

Still,  he  did  not  work  openly  upon  this  principle. 
He  said  he  was  leaving  Nancy  behind,  entirely 
for  Nancy's  good.  But  in  the  end,  of  course,  he 
got  his  way. 

IV 

A  B.  and  A.  boat  took  Seale  across  the  Bay, 
and  after  calling  at  several  African  ports,  brought 
up  to  an  anchor  head-on  to  a  heavy  swell  in  the 
Lagos  Roads.  A  small  branch-steamer  came  out 
to  her  from  inside  the  bar,  and  Seale  tasted  the 
joys  of  being  transhipped  in  a  tossing  surf-boat 
paddled  by  yelling  Elmina  boys.  The  branch- 
steamer  deposited  him  at  one  of  the  wharves 
which  jut  out  from  the  boulevard  of  the  Marina 
into  the  lagoon,  and  his  new  chief  met  him  there 
with  a  pink  'rickshaw  and  a  white  umbrella. 

Knowing  that  Lagos  is  a  town  of  negroes,  Seale 
had  somehow  or  other  been  prepared  to  find  un 
limited  stinks ;  and  because  these  were  entirely 
absent,  the  air  of  the  place  came  to  him  as  a 
pleasant  surprise.  He  settled  down  in  two  large, 
cool,  whitewashed  rooms,  and  proceeded  to  enjoy 
himself. 

Being  newly  landed  and  full  of  health,  he  natu 
rally  found  the  work  expected  of  him  ridicu 
lously  light ;  and  as  he  had  occasion  to  put  on 
his  dress  clothes  every  night,  and  discovered  that 
white  men  in  Lagos  are  addicted  to  gorgeous 
dinners  and  much  hospitality,  he  told  himself 


58  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

with  confidence  that  the  Coast  had  been  unjustly 
maligned,  and  that  he  had  tumbled  into  a  very 
snug  berth.  He  retained  this  ecstatic  frame  of 
mind  for  exactly  fourteen  days,  and  then  one 
morning  a  man  came  into  his  office  and  asked 
him  to  dinner  for  that  evening. 

"  Can't,"  said  Seale.  "  Much  obliged  all  the 
same.  I'm  chopping  with  Anderson  to-night. 
And  so,  by  the  way,  are  you,  although  I  sup 
pose  you've  forgotten.  He  asked  us  yesterday." 

"  You've  got  to  go  to  Anderson's  funeral  in 
two  hours'  time,"  said  the  other  man,  dryly. 
"  He  pegged  out  with  heat  apoplexy  during  the 
night,  just  before  that  tornado  came  on.  Ta-ta, 
see  you  at  the  cemetery.  And  mind  you  turn  up 
to  dine  with  me.  Seven-thirty  sharp." 

The  other  man  nodded  and  left,  and  Seale 
mopped  a  very  moist  brow  with  his  pocket- 
handkerchief.  « This,"  he  told  himself,  "  was 
the  very  devil  of  a  climate."  And  by  way  of 
having  the  lesson  rammed  home,  he  was  invited 
to  stand  and  frizzle  in  the  sun,  precisely  one 
week  later,  whilst  the  flippant  other  man  was 
himself  being  buried. 

Seale  was  consumed  with  a  mild  touch  of 
Coast  fever  that  night,  and  the  fear  of  death 
gripped  him  by  the  heart.  He  reviewed  much 
of  his  past  life,  and  was  truly  sorry  that  he  had 
not  amended  his  ways  earlier,  and  so  avoided 
coming  to  Lagos.  He  laid  much  solid  blame 
upon  Hankin,  and  told  himself  that  he  could 


THE  FINGER  OF  HANKIN  59 

dance  with  calm  delight  upon  Hankin's  tomb. 
Incidentally  he  remembered  Nancy,  and  tried  to 
carry  his  resentment  along  to  her ;  but  that  did 
not  act.  No,  it  was  no  fault  of  Nancy's  that  he 
was  out  in  this  abominable  exile.  She  was  a 
good  little  beggar  anyhow,  and  a  hot,  new 
trouble  rose  in  him  when  he  thought  of  what 
must  happen  to  her  after  he  died,  as  (he  was 
quite  sure)  must  take  place  within  the  next  few 
hours. 

However,  of  course,  he  did  not  die  then  ;  and 
as  an  early  dose  of  fever  is  the  very  best  thing 
to  acclimatize  a  man,  he  soon  settled  down  into 
a  very  healthy  fellow  from  a  Coast  point  of 
view.  But  that  early  scare  had  bitten  in  deeply, 
and  it  prevented  him  from  remaining  popular 
with  the  Lagos  community.  Where  every  one  is 
lavishly  free-handed,  the  careful  man  who  does 
not  keep  open  house  is  not  called  careful  merely. 
They  give  him  an  uglier  name.  And  if  a  man  of 
any  obstinacy  once  overhears  himself  spoken  of 
as  "  that  stingy  brute,"  he  is  rather  apt  to  act 
up  to  the  character.  Besides,  every  time  the 
dangers  of  the  place  were  brought  home  to  him 
more  nearly,  either  by  illness  within  the  marches 
of  his  own  proper  body,  or  by  the  news  of  death 
amongst  the  white  community,  Seale  could  have 
screamed  aloud  in  his  agony  of  dread  as  to  what 
would  happen  if  Nancy  were  left  unprovided 
for. 

Yet  torment  himself  how  he  would,  the  fund 


60  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

which  he  was  making  for  her  grew  with  exasper 
ating  slowness.  He  had  to  eat  and  drink  to  live  ; 
and  everything  was  expensive ;  and  the  pay  and 
allowances  which  had  seemed  dazzling  enough  at 
a  distance,  shrivelled  wofully  when  counted  on 
the  spot.  Moreover,  he  had  always  possessed  the 
unwieldy  knack  of  making  two  shillings  go  as  far 
as  one,  and  had  never  contrived  to  shake  himself 
adrift  from  it.  And  so  when  the  time  of  his  first 
leave  came  round,  he  drew  his  home-pay  and 
accepted  a  six  months'  billet  in  the  bush  for  extra 
lucre.  He  wrote  home  to  tell  Nancy  that  he  was 
so  hard-worked  that  he  could  not  get  away  — 
which  was  scarcely  true  —  and  also  that  he  was 
in  brilliant  health  at  the  time  of  writing,  which 
was  a  solid  lie. 

His  next  leave  he  also  tried  to  miss,  but  broke 
down  with  dysentery,  and  had  to  spend  a  much- 
grudged  two  months  in  Grand  Canary  to  save  his 
life.  But  he  came  back  to  the  Coast  again  with 
new  health,  and  hammered  desperately  at  the 
dollar-mill  to  make  up  his  leeway.  He  was  not 
liked  in  Lagos  still ;  but  a  rumour  had  got  about 
that  there  was  a  reason  for  his  stinginess,  and 
some  of  the  men  had  got  a  respect  for  him  — 
though  of  course  that  is  a  vastly  different  thing 
from  a  liking. 

And  at  the  end  of  four  and  a  half  years  from 
his  leaving  England,  Captain  Charteris  came  to 
him  again  and  put  a  change  into  his  life,  as  he 
had  done  once  before. 


THE   FINGER   OF   HANKIN  61 

Scale  had  not  forgotten  his  old  animosity 
against  the  man  ;  and  when  he  first  brought  his 
face  into  the  office  quite  unexpectedly  —  for 
Charteris  had  come  into  money,  and  was  living 
at  home  as  a  decent  English  gentleman  now  — 
Seale  bade  him  uncivilly  enough  to  get  out,  one 
time. 

"  You  must  hear  my  message  first,"  said 
Charteris,  "although  I'm  repeating  an  old 
offence." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  I'm  bringing  Nancy  to  you.  She's  upstairs, 
waiting  in  your  house  this  minute,  and  I've  just 
come  down  here  to  break  the  news." 

"  What !  Nancy  here !  Man,  you're  either 
dreaming  or  drunk." 

"  I  am  neither,  although  I  wish  I  was  both. 
The  Lord  knows  I've  no  cause  for  rejoicing." 

Seale  sat  at  his  office  desk  and  passed  a  finger 
round  inside  his  shirt  collar.  "  You'd  better 
explain,"  he  said. 

"  Quite  so.  To  begin  with,  Hankin  —  or  rather 
his  ghost  —  is  interfering  again.  It  seems  he  once 
invested  money  in  one  of  the  Coast  mines  here  at 
Axim.  That  followed  the  habit  of  most  gold 
mines  by  going  pop.  But  they've  found  magnifi 
cent  quartz  reefs  on  either  side  of  his  property ; 
and  so  the  ground  has  been  valued  at  ninety 
thousand  pounds ;  and,  what  is  better  still,  has 
been  sold  for  eighty  thousand  pounds  and  paid 
for.  That's  Nancy's  now,  and  nothing  would 


62  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

suit  her  but  that  she  must  come  down  here  and 
give  you  news  of  it  herself." 

«  My  God  !  "  said  Seale.  Then  after  a  minute 
he  added,  "  But  what  have  you  come  down  here 
for  ?  " 

"  Because,"  said  Charteris,  slowly  and  quietly 
—  "  because  I  love  her." 

"  You  love  Nancy  !  You  !  You  love  that 
child  1  But  there,  I  suppose  she's  grown  up. 
Well,  are  you  going  to  tell  me  next  that  the  pair 
of  you  are  to  be  married  ?  " 

Charteris  looked  at  him  queerly.  "  Shouldn't 
you  mind,"  he  asked,  « if  I  did  tell  you  that  ?  " 

"  I  shouldn't  like  it.  To  be  candid,  I  don't 
particularly  care  for  you,  as  you  know.  But  I 
suppose  she'll  marry  some  day.  I  always  have 
pictured  that,  ever  since  I've  been  on  the  Coast, 
because,  you  see,  she  must  be  provided  for  some 
way." 

"  But  man  !  don't  you  care  for  her  yourself  ?  " 

"  Care  for  her  !  "  Seale  gave  a  mirthless  laugh. 
«  If  you  knew  what  I've  been  doing  here  all  these 
years,  you  wouldn't  ask  that.  Of  course  I  care 
for  her." 

«  But  how  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I've  never  defined  it.  Paternally,  I 
suppose,  or  like  a  brother.  That  kid  and  I  were 
the  best  of  friends." 

"  Seale,  you're  a  fool !  Kid,  you  say.  She's  a 

woman.  She's  the  loveliest But  I'm  not 

going  to  talk.  You  must  see  for  yourself.  Only, 


THE  FINGER  OF   HANKIN  63 

don't  you  go  upstairs  and  make  any  mistake. 
She's  got  no  daughter's  feelings  for  you,  or  sister's  ; 
and  if  you  go  and  break  her  heart  over  any 
nonsense  of  that  kind,  I've  got  it  in  me  to  shoot 
you  for  your  pains.  I've  had  my  life  ruined  for 
me  during  these  last  months  by  you  being  in  the 
way,  and  if  hers  is  to  be  spoiled  too  by  your 
blundering,  you  can  understand  that  I  shall  want 
to  kill  you  very  badly." 

"  Wait  a  minute,"  said  Seale,  unsteadily.  "  This 
has  come  upon  me  with  so  much  suddenness  that 
I  hardly  grasp " 

"  I  have  no  more  to  say  to  you,"  said  Charteris, 
and  he  went  out  into  the  dazzling  sunshine  of  the 
Marina,  where  the  shouting  negroes  were  carrying 
loads  over  the  brick-red  dust. 

Seale  swayed  and  tottered,  then  pulled  himself 
together  with  an  effort,  and  went  up  the  stairs 
which  led  to  his  house  above.  Nancy  knew  his 
footstep  and  met  him  at  the  door,  a  radiant  vision 
in  tropical  white.  He  felt  himself  tangled  by  her 
arms.  Her  lips  were  against  his  ear.  "  Oh,  Ted  ! 
my  love,"  she  was  saying  to  him,  "  I  could  not 
wait  away  from  you  any  longer.  Ted,  darling, 
I  had  to  come.  Oh !  my  own  love,  if  you  only 
knew  how  I  had  hungered  for  you,  you  would 
have  come  to  me  sooner." 

Then  Scale's  eyes  were  opened.  He  did  not 
make  the  blunder  which  Charteris  had  warned 
him  against.  He  felt  no  inclination  that  way. 
A  new  feeling  towards  the  girl  surged  within 


64  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

him  like  a  glow  of  fire.  "  Sweetheart,"  he 
whispered  back  to  her,  "  I  never  knew  you 
would  be  like  this.  If  I  had  known,  I  could 
never  have  kept  myself  away  from  you." 


IV 

THE  CHOLERA  SHIP 

SHE  was  not  the  regular  Portuguese  mail.  She 
was  an  ancient  seven-knot  tramp,  which  had  come 
across  from  Brazil  to  Loanda,  and  had  been  lucky 
enough  to  pick  up  half  a  cargo  of  coffee  there  for 
Lisbon.  She  called  in  at  Banana,  the  station  on 
the  mangrove-spit  at  the  mouth  of  the  Congo, 
where  the  river  pilots  live  (and  on  occasion  die), 
and  where  the  Dutch  factory  used  to  bring  trade 
till  the  Free  State  killed  it  with  duties ;  and  at 
Banana  she  had  further  fortune.  There  were  two 
hundred  and  thirty  negroes  there,  Accra  men  and 
Kroo-boys  mostly,  a  gang  that  had  made  their 
fifteen  or  twenty  pounds  apiece  on  the  railway, 
and  were  waiting  to  go  home. 

The  passenger-boys  had  collected  their  chattels, 
and  were  gathering  in  a  howling,  chattering  mob 
by  the  surf-boats  ready  to  go  on  board,  when  the 
first  notion  came  to  me  of  joining  her.  It  was 
the  Danish  harbour-master  who  gave  it.  He 
came  up,  under  his  old  white  umbrella  with  the 
green  lining,  to  the  house  where  I  was  staying, 
and  told  me  that  the  tramp  was  going  to  call  in 
at  San  Thom6  and  the  Bonny  River. 
F  66 


66  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

"  Now,  we  don't  hanker  to  get  rid  of  you  here, 
Mr.  Calvert,"  he  said,  «  but  if  you  want  to  climb 
that  mountain  in  Fernando  Po,  you're  not  likely 
to  get  so  good  a  chance  for  the  next  three  months 
to  come.  Your  place  is  on  the  road  between  San 
Thorn6  and  Bonny,  though,  of  course,  you'll  have 
to  make  it  worth  the  skipper's  while  to  stop. 
But  that's  your  palaver." 

"  Can  you  put  a  figure  on  it  ?  "  I  asked. 

« I  should  take  it,"  said  the  harbour-master, 
"that  you  could  hustle  the  man  into  Fernando 
Po  for  ten  sovereigns.  He's  only  a  Portugee. 
Come  aboard  now  in  my  gig  and  see  him." 

The  tramp's  interior  was  not  inviting.  We 
went  into  the  chart-house  and  drank  the  inevi 
table  sweet  champagne  with  the  captain  ;  and 
whilst  the  bargain  was  being  made,  a  thousand 
cockroaches  crawled  thoughtfully  over  the  yellow- 
white  paint. 

"  I  tell  you  straight,"  said  the  harbour-master 
in  English,  "  she's  a  dirty  ship,  and  the  chop'll  be 
bad  enough  to  poison  a  spotted  dog.  But  if  you 
will  go  to  these  Portugee  and  Spanish  places  to 
sweat  up  mountains,  that's  part  of  the  palaver." 

"  Oh,  if  the  grub's  good  enough  for  them,  it 
won't  kill  me." 

"  Then  if  you  will  go,  I'll  send  my  boy  off  in 
the  boat  for  your  boxes  one-time,  because  the 
Old  Man's  in  a  hurry  to  be  off.  He's  got  a 
bishop  on  board  below,  very  sick  with  fever, 
and  he  wants  to  be  out  of  this  stew  and  get  to 


THE  CHOLERA  SHIP  67 

sea  again  as  quick  as  it  can  be  done.  Thinks 
it'll  give  the  ship  bad  luck,  I  suppose,  if  the 
bishop  pegs  out." 

The  harbour-master's  boy  was  speedy,  and  the 
harbour-master  himself  piloted  us  out  into  the 
wide  gulf  of  the  river's  mouth.  The  beer-coloured 
stream  gave  up  its  scent  of  crushed  marigolds 
strongly  enough  to  pierce  through  the  smells  of 
the  ship  and  the  smells  of  the  crowded  chatter 
ing  negroes  on  the  fore-deck,  and  the  old  steamer 
began  to  groan  and  creak  as  she  lifted  to  the 
South  Atlantic  swell.  The  sun  went  down,  and 
night  followed  like  the  turning  out  of  a  lamp. 
The  lighthouse  flickered  out  on  the  Portuguese 
shore  away  on  the  port  bow,  and  above  it  hung 
the  Southern  Cross,  a  pale,  faint  thing,  shaped 
like  an  ill-made  kite. 

The  bumping  engines  stopped,  and  the  Dane 
came  down  off  the  upper  bridge.  He  stood  with 
me  for  a  minute  on  the  brown,  greasy  deck  planks, 
and  then  went  down  the  ladder  into  his  boat. 

"  Oscar-strasse,  tretten,  K  jobnhavn ! "  he  shouted, 
as  the  gig  dropped  astern.  "  Mind  you  come.  I 
shall  be  home  in  another  nine  months." 

"  Wanderers'  Club,  London ;  don't  forget ; 
sorry  I  haven't  a  card  left,"  I  hailed  back,  and 
wondered  in  my  mind  whether  in  any  of  the 
world's  turnings  I  should  ever  meet  that  good 
fellow  again.  But  the  steamer  was  once  more 
under  way,  mumbling  and  complaining,  and  the 
store-keeper  at  that  moment  was  beginning  to 


68  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

open  the  case  of  dried  fish  —  baccalhao,  as  they 
call  it  on  the  coast  —  to  which  we  traced  back 
the  hideous  plague  which  in  the  next  few  days 
swept  away  her  people  like  the  fire  from  a  bat 
tery  of  guns. 

There  were  only  two  other  passengers  besides 
the  bishop  and  myself  —  a  pair  of  yellow-faced, 
yellow-fingered  Portuguese  from  down  the  coast, 
traders  both,  with  livers  like  Strasbourg  geese. 
The  Skipper  was  a  decent,  weak  little  chap  from 
Lisbon,  who  might  have  been  good-looking  if  he 
had  sometimes  washed ;  the  Chief  Engineer  was 
a  Swede,  who  spoke  English  and  quoted  Ibsen ; 
and  the  other  officers  I  never  came  specially 
across.  There  was  only  one  of  my  own  country 
men  on  board,  a  fireman  from  Hull,  one  of  the 
strongest  men  I  ever  met,  and  certainly  the  most 
truculent  ruffian.  His  name  was  Tordoff  on  the 
ship's  books,  but  that  was  a  "purser's  name." 
He  spoke  pure  English  when  he  forgot  himself, 
and  certainly  had  once  been  a  gentleman. 

It  was  baking  hot  down  below,  and  the  place 
was  alive  with  rats  and  cockroaches.  I  rigged 
a  wind-scoop  through  the  port  in  my  room,  got 
into  pyjamas,  and  lay  down  on  the  top  of  the 
bunk.  But  I  can't  say  I  did  much  business  with 
sleep ;  the  menagerie  held  cheerful  meetings  all 
round,  and  the  perspiration  tickled  as  it  ran  off 
my  body  in  little  streams ;  and  these  things 
keep  a  man  awake.  My  room  was  to  starboard, 
and  when  through  the  porthole  I  saw  day  blaze 


THE  CHOLERA  SHIP  69 

up  from  behind  the  low  line  of  African  hills,  I 
turned  out,  rolled  a  cigarette,  and  went  on  deck. 
I  was  just  in  time  to  see  the  first  funeral. 

Four  very  frightened-looking  men  and  a  pro 
fane  mate  were  fitting  a  couple  of  biscuit  sacks 
over  a  twisted  figure  which  lay  on  the  grimy, 
greasy  deck  planks.  They  pulled  one  over  the 
head  and  another  over  the  heels,  and  then  with 
a  palm  and  needle  made  them  fast  about  the 
figure's  middle.  Afterwards  they  lashed  a  fire 
bar  along  the  shins,  and  then,  with  faces  screwed 
up  and  turned  away,  they  lifted  the  body  as 
though  it  had  been  red-hot,  and  toppled  it  over 
the  rail. 

The  dead  man  dived  through  the  swell  along 
side  almost  without  a  splash  ;  but,  as  though  his 
coming  had  been  a  signal,  a  dozen  streaks  of  foam 
started  up  from  various  points,  each  with  a  black 
triangular  fin  in  the  middle  of  it ;  and  I  did  not 
feel  any  the  happier  from  knowing  precisely  what 
that  convoy  meant. 

However,  the  sharks  and  the  body  drifted 
away  into  the  wake  astern,  and  I  rolled  another 
cigarette  and  got  a  chair  and  sat  on  the  break  of 
the  bridge  deck.  From  there  I  saw  the  mate  and 
his  four  hands  fetch  one  by  one  five  other  bodies 
out  of  the  forecastle,  and  prepare  them  for 
burial.  Three  they  covered  with  canvas  ;  and 
then  the  supply  of  biscuit  sacks  seemed  to  run 
out,  because  the  last  two  they  put  over  the  side 
with  the  fire-bar  attachment  only. 


70  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

The  fifth  man  had  to  be  content  with  four 
participators  in  his  funeral.  The  remaining 
sailor  held  strangely  aloof ;  his  face  turning 
through  a  prism  of  curious  colours ;  his  body 
swaying  in  uncouth  jerks.  As  the  fifth  corpse 
toppled  over  the  rail,  this  fellow  threw  himself 
down  on  the  hatch  cover,  and  lay  there  writhing 
and  screaming  in  a  torment  of  cramps. 

At  that  moment  a  man  in  a  white  serge  cas 
sock,  which  reached  to  his  heels,  came  out  of  one 
of  the  forecastle  doors  and  walked  rapidly  across 
to  the  new  victim.  He  was  a  long,  lean  man 
with  a  hawk's  nose,  and  bright,  large  eyes.  The 
skin  of  his  face  was  like  baggy  yellow  leather, 
and  it  was  dry  with  fever.  As  he  knelt  beside 
the  writhing  sailor,  I  saw  the  metal  crucifix 
nearly  fall  from  his  thin  hands  through  sheer 
weakness.  He  was  the  Portuguese  bishop  from 
down-coast,  of  course,  and  when  I  remembered  that 
he  had  just  been  through  black-water  fever  (which 
is  own  brother  to  yellow  jack)  I  judged  that, 
from  a  human  point  of  view,  he  was  behaving 
with  exquisite  foolishness  in  meddling  with  first- 
crop  cholera  patients.  But  I  respected  him  a 
good  deal  for  all  that,  and  went  and  got  opium 
and  acetate  of  lead  and  gave  the  man  on  the 
hatch  a  swingeing  dose.  It  was  a  useless  thing 
to  do,  because  the  chap  had  got  to  die,  and  one 
incurred  one's  own  risks  by  going  near  him ;  but 
if  that  bishop  was  a  fool,  I  had  got  to  be  a  fool 
too,  and  there  was  an  end  of  it. 


THE  CHOLERA  SHIP  71 

Mark  you,  I  wasn't  feeling  a  bit  frightened 
then.  I'd  been  through  cholera-cramp  in  India, 
and  knew  what  my  chances  were,  and  was  ready 
to  face  them  without  whimpering;  though  of 
course  I'd  freely  have  given  every  farthing  I  was 
worth  to  have  been  snugly  back  in  the  Congo 
again.  But  the  thing  had  got  to  be  seen  through, 
and  I  intended  to  keep  my  end  up  somehow.  I 
couldn't  afford  to  die  like  a  rat  in  a  squalid  hole 
like  that. 

I  had  breakfast  all  to  myself  that  morning, 
because  no  one  else  turned  up ;  and  afterwards 
the  captain  did  me  the  honour  to  call  me  into 
consultation.  My  Portuguese  is  off  colour,  but  I 
speak  enough  to  get  along  with. 

"  You  English  know  so  much  about  these 
things,"  he  said. 

"  We  keep  clean  ships,"  I  answered,  "  and 
when  anything  goes  wrong  on  them  we  do  not 
lose  our  heads.  Also  we  try  to  trace  our  way 
back  to  the  root  of  evils.  How  did  this  plague 
start  ?  " 

"You  must  have  brought  it  on  board  at  Ba 
nana.  We  had  none  in  the  ship  before  you 
came." 

"  We  did  not  bring  it.  There  is  no  cholera  in 
the  Congo  now.  And,  moreover,  your  passenger- 
boys  are  none  of  them  sick.  You  must  try  back 
further." 

We  did  that  together  laboriously ;  and  at  last 
traced  the  mischief  to  that  fatal  case  of  baccalhao 


72  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

which  had  been  shipped  at  Bahia,  an  infected 
port ;  and  had  this  essence  of  pest  promptly 
thrown  to  the  sharks.  Next  we  went  into  the 
question  of  hands. 

"  I  have  not  enough  firemen  and  trimmers  left 
to  man  a  single  watch,"  said  the  captain.  "The 
cholera  hit  the  stoke-hold  first.  The  fellows  who 
are  working  there  now  have  stood  three  watches 
on  end,  and  they  are  hardly  making  enough  steam 
to  give  her  steerage  way." 

"  If  you  let  your  old  beast  of  a  tramp  stop  and 
drift  about  here  like  a  potato-chip  in  a  frying-pan, 
it  won't  improve  matters.  Those  of  us  who  don't 
peg  out  with  cholera  will  start  murdering  one 
another.  The  niggers  will  begin." 

"  Yes,  I  know.  I  wanted  some  of  them  to 
serve  as  firemen  for  good  pay.  But  they  will 
not  listen  to  me.  I  do  not  think  they  under 
stood.  Will  you  come  and  translate  ?  " 

We  took  revolvers,  holding  them  ostentatiously 
in  our  pockets.  We  crossed  the  dizzy  sunshine 
of  the  lower  main  deck.  The  negroes  on  the  fore 
castle  head  were  chattering  together  like  a  fair  of 
monkeys,  but  they  ceased  when  we  came  up,  and 
stared  at  us  with  faces  working  with  excitement. 

"  Which  be  head-man  ?  "  I  asked. 

A  big  fellow  stood  forward,  hat  in  hand.  "  I 
fit  for  head-man,  sar." 

I  told  him  hands  were  wanted  for  the  stoke 
hold,  and  that  the  gorgeous  pay  of  four  shillings 
English  per  diem  was  offered. 


THE   CHOLERA   SHIP  73 

"  We  no  fit  for  stoke,  sar,"  said  he.  "  We 
gen'lemen  wid  money,  sar.  We  passenger-boys, 
sar." 

"  Very  well,  daddy,"  said  I.  "  But  stoke  you've 
got  to.  And  if  you  won't  do  it  civilly,  you'll  do 
it  the  other  way.  Now,  my  frien',  pick  me  out 
twelve  good  strong  boys.  If  you  don't  do  it,  I'll 
shoot  you  dead  one-time  ;  if  they  won't  work,  I'll 
shoot  them.  You  quite  savvy  ?  " 

We  got  the  men  and  they  went  off  to  the 
stoke-hold,  frightened  and  raging.  Poor  wretches, 
eight  of  them  toppled  over  in  the  next  twenty- 
four  hours,  and  half-a-day  later  the  engines  stopped 
for  the  last  time.  I  was  smoking  industriously 
under  the  alley-way,  and  Tordoff  came  and  loafed 
near  me. 

"  I'm  a  bally  fine  chief-engineer,  aren't  I  ? " 
said  he. 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Well,  I'm  the  best  man  that's  left  of  all  our 
crowd,  that's  all.  They're  every  sinner  of  them 
dead,  black  men,  white  men,  and  Portuguese. 
Where  are  we  now  ?  " 

"  Slap  bang  under  the  equator.  That  mountain- 
top  sticking  out  of  the  water  is  San  Thome." 

"Then  I'm  off  there,"  said  Tordoff.  "This 
bloomin'  steamer's  played  out.  She  can't  steam, 
and  she  wouldn't  sail  if  there  was  any  wind,  which 
there  isn't.  I  shall  take  one  of  the  boats  and  skip. 
You'd  better  come  too." 

«  No." 


74  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

"What  for?     Why  not?" 

"  Because  there  are  only  two  boats  and  they 
aren't  enough  for  all  hands." 

"  The  boats  will  hold  all  the  white  men,  or 
them  that  call  themselves  white.  But  if  you  are 
one  of  the  missionary  crowd  that  hold  niggers  as 
good " 

"  I'm  not.  I  know  what  niggers  are,  and  there 
fore  I'm  not  an  Exeter  Hall  fool  about  them. 
I'll  make  free  to  tell  you  this  boat-game's  been 
thought  of  before ;  but  that  bishop  says  he 
won't  leave  the  niggers  to  peg  out  alone ;  and 
if  he's  going  to  be  idiot  enough  to  stay,  I  am 
going  to  be  another  idiot.  That's  the  size 
of  it." 

"  Well,"  said  Tordoff,  "  I've  got  no  use  for  that 
kind  of  foolishness  myself,  and  if  you're  left,  you 
needn't  come  and  haunt  me  afterwards.  You've 
had  the  straight,  square  tip.  And  you'll  do  no 
good  by  spreading  this  palaver  about.  If  any  one 
tries  to  stop  us,  there'll  be  a  lot  of  men  killed. 
We  aren't  the  kind  of  crowd  that'll  stick  at  trifles 
if  we're  meddled  with.  So  long  !  " 

He  slouched  off,  and  I  went  to  the  deck  of  the 
bridge  and  looked  down  on  a  curious  scene.  The 
main  deck  was  a  shambles.  There  were  a  score 
of  corpses  there,  pitching  about  stiffly  to  the  roll 
of  the  ship,  with  no  one  offering  to  touch  them. 
There  were  a  score  more  of  sick,  shrieking  and 
knotting  themselves  i  n  their  agony.  The  survivors 
were  in  two  sorts  of  panic  —  the  comatose,  and 


THE  CHOLERA   SHIP  75 

the  madly  violent.  A  crowd  of  yelling,  dancing 
negroes,  most  of  them  stark  naked,  had  set  up  a 
ju-ju  on  a  barrel  of  the  fore-deck  winch,  and  were 
sacrificing  to  it  a  hen  which  they  had  stolen  from 
one  of  the  coops.  The  little  wooden  god  I  knew : 
it  was  one  that  I  had  picked  up  in  the  Kasai 
country,  and  I  was  taking  it  home  as  a  curiosity. 
It  had  been  lifted  from  my  own  state-room  by 
some  prowling  negro,  and  was  now  receiving  fresh 
daubs  of  red  blood  amid  the  clamour  of  frantic 
worshippers.  It  was  quite  a  reasonable  thing  to 
expect  under  the  circumstances.  But  what  threw 
the  action  of  these  savages  into  grotesque  relief 
was  the  sight  of  another  man  crouched  in  prayer 
beside  the  bulwarks.  It  was  the  bishop.  His 
tottering  hands  were  pinning  the  crucifix  to  his 
hollow  chest ;  his  hips  were  swaying  under  him 
with  weakness  ;  his  dry,  cracked  lips  moved  noise 
lessly  ;  and  the  molten  sunlight  beat  upon  him  as 
it  pleased. 

The  sight  of  that  man  gave  me  a  bad  feeling. 
Before  I  knew  quite  how  it  happened,  I  was  down 
on  the  frizzling  main-deck,  and  the  ju-ju  had  been 
plucked  from  the  winch  barrel  and  flung  over  the 
side,  together  with  the  tortured  hen,  and  I  was 
fighting  for  my  life  amongst  a  crowd  of  furies. 
Tordoff  was  there  too  (though  I'm  sure  I  don't 
know  how  he  came),  and  thanks  to  him  I  got 
back  again  on  to  the  bridge  deck  ;  but  the  bishop 
did  not  come  with  us.  He  stayed  down  there 
amongst  those  sullen  animal  blacks,  imploring 


76  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

them,  praying  with  them,  soothing  them.  He 
was  a  braver  man  than  I,  that  Portuguese. 

Another  night  came  down,  and  the  steamer 
wallowed  in  inky  blackness.  In  the  morning  we 
were  still  more  helpless.  The  mates,  the  few 
remaining  sailors,  the  stewards  and  cooks,  and  the 
two  yellow  traders  had  gone ;  the  captain  lay  in 
the  alley-way  with  a  knife  between  his  shoulder- 
blades  ;  the  bishop  and  I  and  Tordoff  were  the 
only  white  men  remaining  on  board.  Yes,  Tor- 
doff.  I  went  into  the  pantry  smoking  a  cigarette, 
and  found  him  there,  eating  biscuits  and  raisins. 

"  You  here  ?  "  I  said.  "  Why,  man,  I  thought 
you  cleared  out  with  the  rest." 

"  No,"  he  said,  "  I  thought  it  would  be  fine  to 
stay  behind  and  be  able  to  scoff  the  cabin  grub 
just  as  I  pleased.  I  just  stayed  for  the  grub, 
and  it's  worth  it." 

"You're  rather  a  decent  sort  of  liar,"  I  said; 
"  do  you  mind  shaking  hands  ?  " 

"  I  don't  see  the  need,"  he  said  ;  "  and  besides, 
I'm  using  my  hands  to  eat  these  raisins ;  but  you 
may  kick  me  if  you  like.  There  isn't  a  redder 
fool  than  me  in  both  Atlantics.  By  the  way, 
how's  the  padre  ?  " 

"  Very  sick.  I  looked  into  his  room  and  found 
him  lying  in  his  bunk.  He  couldn't  talk." 

"I  put  him  there.  'Found  the  old  fool  preach, 
ing  to  those  beasts  on  all  fours  this  morning,  and 
looked  on  till  he  dropped ;  then  I  lugged  him 
under  cover." 


THE  CHOLERA  SHIP  77 

"  Any  more  dead  ?  " 

"Five  pegged  out  during  the  night.  They 
were  lying  pleasantly  in  and  amongst  the  others, 
and  there  were  seven  more  sick.  I  told  the  head 
man  when  I  went  down  with  the  padre  to  have 
them  put  over  the  side  or  I'd  kill  him.  And 
when  I  came  back  I  found  he'd  shoved  over  the 
whole  dozen.  The  man-and-a-brother's  a  tolerable 
brute  when  he  comes  to  handling  his  own  kind, 
Mr.  Calvert." 

We  went  out  then  and  set  the  passenger-boys 
to  washing  down  decks.  We  could  not  give  them 
the  hose  because  there  was  no  donkey  working ; 
but  they  drew  water  in  buckets  and  holystoned 
and  scraped  and  scrubbed  till  they  cleaned  the 
infection  out  of  the  decks,  and  sweated  it  out  of 
themselves.  The  cholera  seemed  to  have  ex 
hausted  itself.  There  were  three  other  cases,  it 
is  true,  but  they  were  mild,  and  none  died.  In 
their  fright  the  boys  would  have  chucked  their 
friends  overboard  as  soon  as  they  were  taken  sick, 
but  I  promised  the  head-man  to  shoot  him  most 
punctually  if  any  one  went  over  the  side  who 
was  not  a  pukka  corpse,  and  if  niggers  were 
addicted  to  gratitude  (which  they  are  not),  there 
are  gentlemen  now  living  on  the  Kroo  coast  who 
might  remember  me  favourably.  For  we  did  get 
in.  A  B.  and  A.  boat  picked  us  up  three  weary 
days  later,  and  towed  us  at  the  end  of  an  ex 
tremely  long  hawser  into  the  very  place  to  which 
I  wanted  to  go. 


78  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

Of  course  Fernando  Po,  being  Spanish,  kept 
us  very  much  at  arm's  length ;  and  we  did  a 
thirty  days'  most  rigid  quarantine,  which  made 
(after  the  last  case  had  recovered)  a  matter  of 
forty  days  in  all.  But  we  had  no  more  deaths, 
and  the  bishop  pulled  up  into  fine  form.  He 
was  not  a  man  that  I  could  ever  bring  myself 
to  like,  and  as  Tordoff  was  for  the  most  part 
sullen  and  unwishful  for  talk,  the  time  that  we 
swung  to  our  anchor  off  Port  Clarence  was  not 
exhilarating. 

Still  it  was  pleasant  to  think  that  one  was 
alive,  and  to  realise  that  one  had  got  respectably 
out  of  a  very  tight  corner  —  yes,  one  of  the 
tightest.  The  tramp's  two  boats  never  turned 
up  again.  I  suppose  they  carried  cholera  away 
with  them,  and  drifted  about  in  the  belt  of 
equatorial  calms,  full  of  sun-dried  corpses,  till 
some  tornado  came  and  swamped  them.  So 
that  we  three  were  the  only  Europeans  left  out 
of  thirty-four,  and  of  the  two  hundred  and  thirty 
negroes  who  left  Banana  in  the  Congo,  only 
seventy-four  came  to  Fernando  Po.  It  was  a 
tolerable  thinning  out ;  but  when  it  came  to 
climbing  the  peak,  that  made  up  for  all  which 
had  gone  before.  Indeed,  it  is  a  wonderful 
mountain. 

I  saw  Tordoff  again  just  as  I  was  going  away 
from  the  island,  and  tried  to  put  it  to  him  deli 
cately  that  I  was  not  badly  off,  and  would  like 
to  give  him  a  lift  if  the  thing  could  be  managed. 


THE  CHOLERA  SHIP  79 

"  No,  Mr.  Calvert,"  he  said,  "  thanks.  I  prefer 
to  go  to  the  devil  my  own  gait.  I  don't  suppose 
you'd  ever  know  who  I  am ;  but  if  anybody 
describes  me  and  asks,  just  say  you  haven't 
seen  me." 

And  that  is  the  last  I  have  seen  or  heard  of 
him.  It  is  extraordinary  how  one  drifts  away 
from  men.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  I  should  not 
be  in  the  least  surprised  at  stumbling  across  Tor- 
doff  again,  in  purple  and  fine  linen  for  choice  on 
the  next  occasion. 


V 

THE  HERMIT 


WHEN  ladies  go  alligator-hunting,  they  should 
clearly  understand  that  people  whom  they  find, 
and  associate  with  most  freely,  in  an  Alabaman 
layou  should  not  always  be  bowed  to  in  Picca 
dilly.  This  sounds  simple ;  an  axiom,  in  fact ; 
but  because  Miss  Wilcoxn  did  such  an  uncalled- 
for  bowing,  things  happened  which  put  two  most 
respectable  families  in  a  condition  of  open  fury, 
and  I  earned  dislike  as  the  Origin  of  Evil. 

As  a  matter  of  accuracy,  my  yacht-mate  was 
far  more  guilty  than  I.  He  had  gone  a-fishing 
one  day  in  his  shirt,  and  had  spent  eight  hours 
sandwiched  in  between  wind  and  water,  and  had 
naturally  returned  with  his  legs  bitten  red  raw  by 
the  sun.  He  developed  a  temper  in  consequence 
that  would  have  made  him  shunned  in  the  Pit, 
and  I  was  driven  into  a  deed  of  temporary  sepa 
ration. 

But  first,  as  I  am  standing  here  on  my  defence, 
let  it  be  clearly  understood  that  I  found  Atcheson 
before  I  knew  Miss  Wilcoxn  was  yachting  with 

80 


THE  HERMIT  81 

the  Van  Sciaks  in  Mobile  Bay,  before,  in  fact,  I 
knew  that  the  lady  was  in  America  at  all.  I  had 
seen  her  last  in  a  West  Kensington  drawing-room, 
and  (if  the  complete  truth  be  told)  had  slipped 
her  from  my  thoughts  with  a  perfunctory  hand 
shake.  One  meets  so  many  people. 

Moreover,  Atcheson  was  introduced  by  the 
Fates.  Being  ignorant  of  the  man's  existence,  I 
naturally  did  not  seek  for  him  specially.  He 
lived  two  days  deep  in  swampy  country,  which 
is  not  yet  charted  in  the  United  States  maps. 

Our  yacht  was  then  in  the  Bayou  of  Bon 
Secours  (which  opens  off  Mobile  Bay),  and  the 
Man  with  the  Sunburnt  Legs  said,  with  many 
adjectives,  that  movement  for  him  was  out  of  the 
question.  He  remarked  that  he  would  stay  on 
the  sloop  and  fish  for  gaff-tops'ls  (as  they  call  the 
cat-fish),  and  cavallos,  and  sheep-heads,  and  sharks, 
and  haply  for  tarpon,  and  indeed  whatever  else  he 
could  get ;  and  said  that  polite  conversation  was 
a  strain  to  him.  He  stated  that  our  crew  (of  one 
negro)  would  make  a  suitable  butt  for  his  future 
remarks,  and  put  forward  the  suggestion  that  I 
should  take  myself  off.  "  Go  and  hunt  alligators 
up  the  lagoons,  and  live  like  a  savage  in  the 
swamps,  and  eat  crackers  and  trout,  and  catch 
fever  if  there's  any  throwing  about,"  said  the  Man 
with  the  Sunburnt  Legs ;  "  that'll  be  about  your 
form."  So  I  pitied  the  nigger  and  went  off  —  in 
pale  pink  pyjamas,  and  the  ten-foot  yawl-boat. 

The  sail  to  the  head  of  the  bayou  was  simple. 


82  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

Then  there  were  two  miles  to  be  punted  to  the 
long,  narrow  sliver  of  lagoon  which  lies  inside  the 
sand-dunes  of  the  Mexican  Gulf.  The  cypresses, 
and  the  black  pines,  and  the  magnolias  arched 
above  the  cut,  and  fronds  of  palmetto  which  grew 
on  clumps  of  soil,  slashed  at  one  like  knives. 
The  atmosphere  was  a  hot,  moist  stew,  and  there 
was  a  smell  about  it  half-way  between  rotten  eggs 
and  the  Harrogate  pump-room.  Also  there  were 
flies  in  all  abundance,  which  fancied  themselves 
masterless  dogs,  and  bit  accordingly. 

The  subsequent  sail  down  the  lagoon,  under  a 
brazen  torrent  of  sunshine,  came  as  one  of  the 
seven  pleasures  of  life.  There  was  a  great  wall  of 
trees  on  the  landward  side,  rearing  itself  from  the 
water's  lip  in  a  hedge  of  undergrowth.  To  south 
ward,  from  over  the  rambling  line  of  dunes,  with 
their  fringes  of  scrub-grass  and  palmetto,  came  the 
dim  bellow  of  the  surf  as  it  creamed  and  crumbled 
on  the  white  Gulf  sand.  And  down  the  silver 
ripples  of  the  lagoon  there  blew  an  air,  faintly  salt, 
which  chilled  the  wet  cotton  against  one's  spine, 
and  pushed  the  yawl-boat  on  with  the  tinkle  of 
fountains  under  her  stem. 

The  lagoon  bayed  to  an  end,  and  there  opened 
out  another  channel  to  be  punted  through  —  a 
narrow,  winding  canal  of  twirls  and  branches, 
through  quaking  marsh  land,  a  waterway  rustling 
with  fish  and  ablaze  with  yellow  lilies.  Cardinal- 
birds  peered  at  one  from  the  bushes,  and  purple 
herons  thrust  out  curious  beaks  from  the  grass- 


THE   HERMIT  83 

clumps.  It  was  all  very  peaceful,  and  extremely 
hot. 

Then  there  came  a  lake  with  islands,  a  lake  of 
water  called  by  courtesy  fresh,  which  was  lemon- 
yellow  to  look  through,  and  black  to  look  upon. 
It  swarmed  with  fish,  which  took  the  hook,  and 
were  supped  upon  for  their  sins ;  and  because 
there  was  no  whisky  in  the  yawl-boat  for  dilu 
tion,  it  served  as  a  beverage  in  all  its  sulphurous 
nastiness.  Then  the  sun  dipped  behind  the  for 
ests  at  the  back,  and  night  followed  like  the  shut 
ting  down  of  a  box.  One  mounted  a  bull's-eye 
lantern  on  the  hat-band,  which  would  shine  down 
a  rifle's  sights,  and  put  out  again  in  the  boat, 
paddling  stealthily.  It  is  not  always  easy  to  dis 
tinguish  between  a  firefly  and  the  gleam  from  an 
alligator's  eye,  and  shots  are  apt  to  be  wasted  and 
the  neighbourhood  scared.  But  on  that  night  for 
tune  helped,  and  the  lead  went  home  six  several 
times.  Then  the  dead  were  made  more  safely 
dead  with  the  axe,  and  their  slayer  laid  him 
down  to  sleep  on  the  boat's  floor,  with  his  head 
beside  the  centreboard  trunk. 

So  passed  my  first  night  away  from  the  sloop. 
The  morning  was  occupied  in  the  process  of  skin 
ning,  and  then  once  more  on  towards  the  east. 
There  were  more  lakes  and  more  canals  all  full 
of  their  own  new  wonders ;  and  ever  away  in 
the  distance,  on  the  starboard  hand,  was  the  noise 
of  the  surf  as  it  broke  where  the  logs  from  the 
Gulf  rivers  bristle  in  the  milky  sand.  In  late 


84  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

afternoon  I  came  to  a  lagoon  with  a  wooded 
island  in  it,  and  amongst  the  trees  of  the  island, 
when  they  grew  distinct  from  one  another,  I  saw 
a  man. 

I  bore  down  to  him  under  sail  (for  there  was 
a  spanking  breeze  coming  in  from  the  sea),  and 
when  we  were  within  hailing  distance,  the  boat 
grounded. 

"  Do  you  want  to  land  here  ?  "  he  shouted. 

"  I  don't  mind  if  I  do." 

"Then  shove  off  again  and  drop  down  to  the 
tail  of  the  island,  and  luff  up  sharp  where  you 
see  a  barked  tree  on  the  beach.  There's  no  deep 
water  till  you  come  to  there." 

I  did  as  he  told  me,  put  the  boat's  nose  on 
a  small  beach  of  pebbles,  and  waited,  smoking. 
I  waited  half  an  hour  maybe,  and  then  he  strolled 
up  very  leisurely  with  his  thumbs  in  the  waist- 
belt  of  his  trousers.  I  can't  say  he  seemed  over 
pleased  to  see  me.  He  asked  with  point  what  I 
had  come  for. 

I  told  him,  and  then  said,  "  By  the  way,  you're 
a  'Varsity  man,  aren't  you  ?  " 

"  Yes,  Oxford  :  the  House.  You  are,  too,  I've 
a  notion  ?  " 

"  From  over  the  way  :  Clare." 

"  Well,  if  you've  nothing  better  on,  leave  your 
boat  and  come  up  to  my  place.  Sorry  I  didn't 
tumble  to  you  at  first,  but  then  you  don't  look 
over  respectable  just  now.  Are  you  much  down 
on  your  luck  ?  " 


THE   HERMIT  85 

"  Oh,  I'm  not  hunting  alligators  professionally. 
I'm  here  for  amusement." 

I  concluded  he  was  there  because  he  had  got 
into  trouble  with  the  Law  of  the  Land  elsewhere, 
but  I  did  not  suggest  this,  because  it  is  consid 
ered  rude  to  touch  upon  family  matters  uninvited. 
But  after  a  minute  he  broached  the  topic  him 
self.  "  I'm  here  for  amusement  my  self,"  he  said. 
"  I'm  here  permanently." 

By  this  time  we  had  got  into  a  bit  of  a  clear 
ing  inside  the  wall  of  trees  —  a  patch  of  sorghum, 
another  of  sweet  potatoes,  another  of  corn  with 
stalks  that  stood  ten  feet  high,  and  a  goodly 
planting  of  green  tobacco  plants,  with  a  sham 
bling  palmetto  shack  at  the  back. 

"  Faith,"  I  said,  « you've  queer  notions  of  a 
pleasure  resort." 

"  I'm  a  man,"  he  said,  "  with  an  imagination. 
Consequently  I  make  a  most  comfortable  hermit. 
Come  in  and  take  a  hammock.  Where's  our  eight 
on  the  river  ?  " 

I  told  him,  and  we  went  on  hard  at  boating 
shop  till  the  sun  went  out.  It  was  wonderful 
what  a  lot  of  men  we  knew  in  common  when 
we  began  to  talk  things  over,  and  it  turned  out 
that  we  had  rowed  against  one  another  at  Henley 
for  two  events.  "  Of  course,"  he  broke  out  at 
once  ;  "  you  are  the  M'Cray  who  swam  down 
from  Marsh  lock  to  Henley  bridge  in  your  clothes 
the  last  night  of  the  races,  because  you  said  you 
hadn't  been  allowed  a  decent  dip  all  through  the 


86  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

training."  And  "  By  Jove  !  "  I  said,  «  you  are 
Atcheson  of  the  Leander  who  steered  their 
Stewards'  four  from  bow,  and  ran  five  feet  of 
her  through  the  side  of  an  oak  dinghy."  Whereat 
we  both  laughed,  and  knew  one  another  extremely 
well.  After  this  I  asked  him  if  he  ever  ate. 

"  Why,  yes,"  he  said,  "  I'd  forgotten.  What'll 
you  have  ?  There's  some  boiled  fish,  and  sweet 
spuds  and  molasses.  The  fish  is  on  the  floor  in 
the  far  corner  there,  and  the  rest  is  mixed  ready 
in  the  saucepan.  There  are  no  plates.  Help 
yourself." 

"  Candles  ?  "  I  suggested. 

"  Haven't  such  a  thing ;  or  lamp.  Can't  you 
feed  in  the  dark  ?  There  will  be  a  moon  above 
the  tree-tops  directly,  if  you  want  a  light." 

"  I  say,  am  I  to  ladle  up  this  stuff  with  my 
fingers  ?  " 

Atcheson  laughed.  "  I'm  not  going  to  lend 
you  mine,"  he  said.  "  Why,  what  a  luxurious 
sybarite  you  must  be.  Climb  back,  M'Cray, 
down  the  centuries,  and  enjoy  yourself  as  Primi 
tive  Man.  Feast  and  be  filled,  and  then  come 
to  your  hammock  again  and  talk  intellectually. 
There's  a  tin  down  there  somewhere  with  some 
water  in  it,  or  coffee,  I  forget  which.  Drink 
when  you're  dry." 

I  began  to  have  a  strong  idea  that  the  man 
was  mad ;  but  I  stopped  my  hunger  on  his 
victuals  for  all  that ;  and  then  relit  my  pipe  and 
went  on  with  the  talk. 


THE   HERMIT  87 

From  the  other  side  of  the  clearing  came  the 
noises  of  the  night  —  the  chatter  of  katydids 
and  the  rustle  of  jarflies,  the  love-song  of  tree 
crickets  and  toads,  the  deep  reed  notes  of  frogs 
in  their  patches  of  marsh;  and  through  all 
mingled  the  heavy  diapason  of  the  surf,  from 
across  the  dunes,  and  the  forest,  and  the  black 
water  of  the  lake,  mellowed  by  its  passage 
through  the  purple  night.  I  am  the  most  practi 
cal  and  unpoetical  creature  in  the  world,  as  a 
general  thing,  but  the  influence  of  it  was  too 
heavy  for  me.  I  started  on  to  chat  again  about 
the  boats,  and  about  women,  and  yachts,  and 
books,  and  the  other  interests  of  the  outer  world  ; 
but  the  things  fell  flat,  and  presently  the  talk 
died  out  of  us  altogether.  We  lay  there,  hung 
in  silence,  and  sensuously  drinking  in  what  the 
night  gave  up.  We  must  have  spent  hours  with 
out  throwing  down  a  word. 

Then  Atcheson  spoke.  « That  is  my  usual 
concert,"  he  said.  "  One  gets  to  like  it." 

I  did  not  answer  at  once.  I  could  not,  although 
his  words  came  clearly  enough  to  my  ears.  A 
sort  of  mesmeric  doze  pinned  me  down. 

When  I  managed  to  rouse,  I  felt  angry  with 
myself  for  weakness,  and  spoke  with  a  sneer. 
"  You  must  find  it  mighty  monotonous,"  I  said. 

"A  mistake,  an  utter  mistake.  It  is  full  of 
infinite  variety :  it  never  repeats  itself ;  and  I 
know,  because  I  have  listened  to  it  now  for  three 
years,  in  calm,  in  cyclone,  in  every  kind  of  night 


88  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

which  God  will  give.  It  is  His  orchestra,  but 
until  the  taste  has  grown,  one  does  not  know 
this." 

Another  pause.  Then,  "Are  you  going  to  write 
about  this  Walden  Pond  of  yours  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  I  am  no  Thoreau  with  a  pen.  Besides,  I  am 
selfish,  and  if  I  could  set  this  down,  I  would  not. 
One  man  in  ten  thousand  might  understand,  some 
wild  fellow,  who  had  lived  in  the  air,  with  the 
things  that  grow  in  the  air  away  from  the  pes 
tilence  of  cities,  and  Tie  would  never  lift  a  book ; 
but  the  others  would  either  yawn  or  deride,  and 
I  take  it  this  is  no  matter  to  be  profaned.  And 
yet  there  is  nothing  new  in  it  all :  only  the  old 
things  changed.  I  have  rambled  over  the  world, 
and  seen  and  tried  most  pleasures ;  the  sounds 
here  give  it  all  back  to  me  again,  only  here  it  is 
idealised." 

"  I  hardly  understand." 

"Listen  to  the  Gulf  surf  rumbling  on  those 
beaches." 

"  It  is  like  the  roar  of  the  Prater,  or  the  Strand, 
or  the  Rambla,  or  Broadway,  as  it  comes  to  an 
upper  window." 

"  You  can  hear  that :  I  can  make  out  more,  be 
cause  my  ear  is  trained.  I  can  hear  the  voices  and 
what  they  say  —  the  tales  of  love,  and  hope, 
and  hate ;  the  merry  laugh,  the  curses,  the  wild 
and  bitter  laugh  ;  and  in  the  tree-tops  yonder  I 
can  see  these  people  who  move  and  live,  and 
follow  them  as  they  pass  along,  with  their  skirts 


THE  HERMIT  89 

rustling,  and  their  shoulders  jostling  one  another. 
The  place  is  full  of  life  to  me  and  full  of  com 
pany,  and  I  can  revel  in  it  all  without  being 
mixed  in  the  dirt  and  the  pains  and  the  squalor. 
And  it  is  very  beautiful  also.  What  picture  did 
you  ever  see  like  that  ?  " 

He  flung  a  hand  to  where  the  red  moon  and  a 
patch  of  purple  sky  hung  framed  in  a  black  arch 
of  the  pines.  In  the  foreground  the  lake  lay 
twinkling  beyond  a  great  fan  of  palms.  On  the 
flank  was  spread  a  thick  magnolia  tree,  full  of 
scented  blossom,  and  splashed  with  cones  of 
coral  pink. 

I  looked,  and  hung  on  my  gaze ;  and  once 
more  the  silence  grew  between  us. 

The  spell  of  the  place  was  closing  down  again 
and  pinning  me.  I  raised  myself  with  an  effort, 
and  swore  for  relief.  "  Atcheson,"  I  said,  "  I  be 
lieve  you  are  either  the  devil,  or  Circe,  with  a 
changed  sex.  Be  merciful  and  speak  no  more, 
and  let  me  sleep.  If  I  listen  on,  I  shall  forget  the 
place  from  whence  I  am  come,  and  stay  here,  and 
become  as  one  of  the  swine." 

"  I  am  sorry,"  Atcheson  said,  "  and  because  I 
do  not  want  converts  or  companions  I  will  say  no 
more.  Therefore  sleep  you." 


n 

The  miasma  of  the  lotus  was  in  my  veins,  and 
I  knew  it  and  feared.     I  woke  sullen  and  sus- 


90  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

picious  with  the  first  lift  of  day,  and  got  down 
to  my  boat.  Atcheson  came  after  and  cried  a 
pleasant  auf  wiedersehen,  and  I  answered  with  a 
scowl  and  threw  out  the  sculls.  I  was  very 
angry  with  myself,  and  still  more  frightened.  I 
had  been  in  that  kind  of  temptation  before,  and 
knew  what  it  was  afterwards  to  wish  that  I 
had  fallen.  Consequently  I  made  up  my  mind 
to  get  back  to  the  yacht  without  a  halt,  and  so 
put  in  a  day  of  savage  toil ;  and  because  the  sun 
above  burned  like  a  kettle  of  molten  brass,  and 
the  air  baked,  the  material  pains  of  the  body 
gave  me  other  matters  to  think  about.  And 
when  I  made  out  the  sloop's  riding-light  dancing 
on  her  forestay,  I  knew  there  was  another 
antidote  close  at  hand.  The  Man  with  the 
Sunburnt  Legs  was  a  very  carnal  and  practical 
sort  of  person. 

He  received  me  affably.  He  fed  me  first  with 
sumptuousness,  referred  to  the  decrease  of  his 
own  affliction,  and  then  told  me  that  we  and 
the  oysterman  no  longer  had  the  bayou  to 
ourselves. 

"The  Van  Sciaks  have  come  in  with  their 
schooner,"  he  said ;  "  and  they've  a  girl  on  board 
who  says  she  knows  you  —  a  Miss  Wilcoxn." 

"  Ah,"  I  said,  "  I  know  her  well  enough.  We 
used  to  see  a  goodish  deal  of  one  another  once." 

"  If  you  mean  that  you  were  spoons  on  the 
lady,"  said  the  Man  with  the  Sunburnt  Legs,  "  I 
guess  you'd  better  forget  that.  She's  engaged  to 


THE  HERMIT  91 

a  Yankee  man  from  Massachusetts  now,  a  person 
with  culture  and  dollars  —  heaps  of  dollars  — 
about  ten  million  of  'em,  so  I  believe.  And  being 
cmno  aetatis  suae  twenty-eight,  she  knows  what  is 
a  soft  thing,  and  is  not  likely  to  chuck  it  up. 
Take  off  those  rags  and  put  on  something  respec 
table,  and  we'll  make  the  nigger  scull  us  across. 
She  said  I  was  to  bring  you  when  you  turned 
up." 

"  Not  now.  At  present  I  am  going  to  turn  in 
to  sleep.  Probably  I  shall  die  in  the  course  of 
the  night.  It  will  save  me  the  trouble  and  pain 
of  kicking  myself  if  I  do." 

"Did  you,"  said  the  Man  with  the  Sunburnt 
Legs,  "  in  the  course  of  your  wanderings  find  a 
place  where  they  sold  corn-whisky  ?  Oh,  you're 
snoring  already,  are  you  ?  Well,  I  hope  it's 
merely  drunk  you  are,  my  son,  because  otherwise 
you've  come  back  very  dotty.  What  rot,  to  go 
and  live  like  a  hermit  all  by  your  lonesome  self." 

m 

Miss  Wilcoxn  was  a  young  woman  with  a 
great  notion  of  having  her  own  way.  Had  I 
known  her  less,  I  should  have  tried  to  avoid 
speaking  on  a  matter  which  I  preferred  to  keep 
silence  upon.  Being  acquainted  as  we  were,  I 
did  not  bring  out  any  futile  stubbornness. 

She  wanted  to  know  what  there  was  to  be  seen 
in  the  lagoons  and  lakes,  and  I  told  her,  with  one 


92  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

reservation  ;  but  my  tale  did  not  quite  hold  water, 
and  she  twigged  that  there  was  something  left 
out,  and  demanded  to  hear  what  it  was.  Where 
upon  I  shrugged  my  shoulders  helplessly,  and 
told  her  about  Atcheson,  chapter,  commas,  and 
verse,  merely  lying  in  the  solitary  instance  of  a 
personal  name. 

"  You  say  that  he  is  a  Christ  Church  man  ?  " 
she  demanded,  when  I  had  finished.- 

«  Did  I  say  so  ?  " 

"  You  did ;  and  you  mentioned  also  that  he 
rowed  against  you  at  Henley  for  the  Stewards' 
and  the  Ladies'  Plate.  That  fixes  him.  If  you'd 
done  me  the  compliment  to  remember,  I  was 
down  there  on  a  houseboat  that  year.  And  so, 
of  course,  his  name  isn't  Foote  at  all  ?  " 

"  Perhaps  it's  got  changed,"  I  admitted  weakly. 
"  Men's  names  do,  you  know,  when  they  climb 
down  the  scale  as  he's  done." 

«  Hum,"  she  said,  and  pulled  down  a  chart  of 
the  Northern  Gulf  Coast  from  its  cleat  in  the 
cabin  roof.  "Now  show  me  exactly  where  this 
hermit  lives." 

"  That  chart's  all  wrong.  The  place  in  there 
isn't  surveyed." 

"  Precisely.  But  you've  been  there,  and  you 
know  the  lay  of  it.  Don't  be  shy.  Your  powers, 
my  dear  Mac,  in  that  direction  are  notorious. 
Here's  a  pencil.  Fill  it  in  accurately,  and  tell  me 
the  landmarks  from  the  Gulf  side." 

"  If  you  go  up  there,  and  see  this  fellow,  and 


THE  HERMIT  93 

sleep  even  one  night  in  those  swamps,  you'll  catch 
fever  and  die.  Also,  the  mosquitoes  and  the  sand- 
flies  will  eat  most  of  you  before  death  comes. 
Don't  be  a  fool.  What  more  do  you  want  to 
know  about  the  man  ?  Stay  here,  and  I  will 
tell  you." 

"  My  excellent  Mac,  I  have  pumped  you  dry. 
For  the  rest  I  must  see  him  myself.  And  I  shall 
not  die  of  fever,  because  I  shall  get  this  yacht  to 
take  me  round  to  the  outside,  and  go  from  there, 
and  so  not  have  to  spend  a  night  ashore  at  all. 
Nor  will  the  insects  of  the  swamps  devour  me, 
because  I  own  a  wide-brimmed  hat,  and  a  large 
and  most  excellent  veil." 

"Well,"  said  I,  "if  you  will  do  this  thing,  at 
all  events  you  shall  do  it  decently.  There's  a 
small  creek  on  beyond,  up  which  we  will  incite 
the  Van  Sciaks  to  take  the  yacht.  I'll  bring  our 
sloop.  We  will  go  with  the  pretence  of  alligator- 
hunting." 

"  You  are  an  excellent  person,  Mac.  You 
always  see  your  own  tastes  aren't  trampled  on." 

"My  dear  Mary,  the  alligator-shooting  is  a 
piece  of  deception  for  which  I  blush.  It  is  en 
tirely  on  your  behalf  that  I  take  up  any  more 
of  it.  You  ought  to  be  extremely  grateful ;  not 
sarcastic.  Go  now  and  wheedle  the  Van  Sciaks, 
and  I'll  be  off  and  get  my  own  boat  under  weigh." 

In  an  hour's  time  the  two  yachts  were  standing 
out  board  and  board  over  the  shallow  bar  which 
guards  the  entrance  to  the  Bayou  of  Bon  Secours. 


94  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

There  was  a  romping  breeze  from  the  nor'ard,  and 
we  span  at  eight  knots  past  the  low  shore,  where 
only  the  tree-stems  show  above  the  water.  Then 
we  slipped  out  through  the  channel  between 
Dauphin  Island  and  Fort  Morgan,  and  lifted  to 
the  swing  of  the  outer  sea,  running  east  along  the 
Gulf  Coast.  Night  had  fallen  before  we  made 
the  creek,  and  we  tacked  in  over  the  bar  by  blaz 
ing  moonlight,  with  centre-boards  up,  and  the 
breeze  eddying  light  and  fitful  through  the  trees. 
That  night  we  took  the  rifles  and  the  bull's-eye 
lanterns,  and  shot  a  dozen  alligators  by  way  of 
giving  ourselves  countenance. 

Of  course,  Miss  Wilcoxn  did  go  to  see  Atche- 
son.  I  took  her  to  the  island  myself,  through  an 
intolerable  maze  of  lakes  and  waterways,  and 
told  the  Van  Sciaks  that  we  hoped  to  slay  alli 
gators  by  daylight,  which  is  probably  the  baldest 
excuse  a  grown  man  with  a  pretty  invention  ever 
made.  But  I  will  give  the  girl  credit  for  one 
thing  —  she  didn't  stay  talking  to  the  fellow  for 
more  than  ten  minutes.  What  she  said  to  him  I 
don't  know,  because  my  instructions  were  to  stay 
by  the  boat  and  see  that  it  didn't  drift  away. 
But  when  she  came  back,  and  we  rowed  off,  she 
found  cause  to  comment  that  Atcheson  was  a 
curious  handful. 

"I  told  you  that  before,"  I  said.  "Now 
you've  learnt  it  for  yourself,  I  trust  you're 
satisfied  ?  " 

"  I  am  entirely,  Mac.     I  hope  you  are,  too  ?  " 


THE   HERMIT  95 

"  I  don't  know  about  that.  But  I  do  know 
I'm  extremely  hot." 

"  Well,  then,  hurry  and  get  back,  and  I'll  fix 
you  up  a  mint  julep.  We've  ice  on  board,  and 
all  the  other  necessaries,  and  Mr.  Van  Sciak  has 
shown  me  how  to  use  a  swizzle-stick.  He  said 
it  might  come  in  useful,  as  I  had  thoughts  of  set 
tling  in  America,  don't  you  know  ?  " 

"  So  I've  been  given  to  understand.  As  you 
have  not  had  my  congratulations  before,  please 
accept  them  now  in  all  fulness.  I  suppose  I'm 
scratched  from  the  running  now  ?  " 

"  Com-pletely,  my  dear  boy.  And  it  doesn't 
surprise  you  in  the  least,  or  disappoint  you, 
either.  We'd  have  quarrelled  like  cat  and  dog. 
We've  no  tastes  in  common.  For  instance,  ex 
cept  for  perhaps  once,  I  loathe  alligator-hunting." 

And  so  we  went  back,  and  I  was  rewarded,  not 
with  one  julep  only,  but  several. 

The  Van  Sciaks  wanted  to  go  to  Mississippi 
Sound  next  day,  and  as  the  other  man  and  I 
were  bound  for  Pensacola,  in  Florida,  the  yachts 
separated,  and  I  did  not  see  Miss  Wilcoxn  again 
for  some  time.  But  I  heard  of  some  of  her  doings, 
which,  to  say  the  least  of  them,  seemed  eccentric. 
Also,  which  was  worse,  they  were  unworldly. 
Young  men  with  culture  and  ten  million  dollars 
are  not  to  be  picked  up  every  day ;  nor  should 
they  be  thrown  lightly  aside. 

But  when  I  got  back  to  Town,  and,  to  my 
vast  astonishment,  saw  Atcheson  there,  then  a 


96  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

light  began  to  dawn  upon  me.  He  was  march 
ing  down  Pall  Mall  as  large  as  life,  and  very 
resplendent.  He  had  on  a  very  beautiful  tail 
coat,  the  last  gift  of  the  gods  in  the  way  of  hat 
and  tie,  and  a  new-reaped  chin,  which  stood  out 
refreshingly  white  against  the  rest  of  his  counte 
nance.  He  shook  me  by  the  hand  and  said  I 
was  a  great  man.  Then  we  went  into  a  club 
and  talked  for  several  hours  without  a  stop,  and 
he  explained  to  me  how  a  hermit  cannot  her- 
mitize,  unless  he  has  a  disease  vulgarly  known 
as  the  "hump." 

"  It's  enjoyable  enough  whilst  you  have  that," 
said  Atcheson,  "but  when  the  hump  goes,  the 
bottom's  knocked  out  of  the  hermit  business  al 
together.  What  a  filthy,  squalid  brute  I  must 
have  been  all  that  time." 

"  But  you  liked  it  well  enough." 

"  I  believe  I  did,  in  my  morbid  way.  But  it's 
over  and  done  with  now,  thank  heaven !  and 
'  I'm  going  to  marry  Yum- Yum,  Yum- Yum,  your 
anger  pray  tarry '  Oh,  bother,  I've  for 
gotten  the  words.  Jove !  I  shall  have  a  lot  to 
pick  up  again." 

"  That's  a  fact,"  I  said.  "  Ordinary  sanity 
amongst  other  things.  And  so  you're  going  to 
marry  Mary  Wilcoxn,  after  all  ?  " 

"  It's  a  sure  thing.  Of  course,  her  people  were 
mad,  because  I'm  not  very  well  off,  don't  you 
know ;  and  the  other  Johnnie's  people  are  mad, 
too,  at  his  being  cut  out.  But  you're  the  person 


THE  HERMIT  97 

they  can't  get  over.  It's  you  they  are  wild  at 
principally.  They  will  persist  in  it  that  you  are 
at  the  bottom  of  the  whole  thing.  Isn't  it  de 
lightfully  funny  ?  " 

But  I  didn't  think  it  funny  at  all.  I  make 
quite  sufficient  enemies  off  my  own  bat  for  per 
sonal  consumption.  And,  besides,  as  I  have 
said,  if  the  other  fool  hadn't  got  his  legs  sun 
burned,  I  shouldn't  have  gone  off  solus  in  the 
yawl-boat,  nor  meddled  with  Atcheson  at  all. 


VI      . 

THE  LIZARD 

IT  is  not  in  the  least  expected  that  the  general 
public  will  believe  the  statements  which  will  be 
made  in  this  paper.  They  are  written  to  catch 
the  eye  of  Mr.  Wilfred  Cecil  Cording  (or  Cordy) 
if  he  still  lives,  or  in  the  event  of  his  death  to 
carry  some  news  of  his  last  movements  to  any  of 
his  still  existing  friends  and  relations.  Further 
details  may  be  had  from  me  (by  any  of  these 
interested  people)  at  Poste  Restante,  Kettlewell, 
Wharfedale,  Yorkshire.  My  name  is  M'Cray, 
and  I  am  sufficiently  well  known  there  for 
letters  to  be  forwarded  to  wherever  I  may  be 
at  the  moment. 

The  matters  in  question  happened  two  years 
ago  on  the  last  day  of  August.  I  had  a  small 
high-ground  shoot  near  Kettlewell,  but  that 
morning  all  the  upper  parts  of  the  hill  were 
thick  with  dense  mist,  and  shooting  was  out  of 
the  question.  However,  I  had  been  going  it 
pretty  hard  since  the  twelfth,  and  was  not  sorry 
for  an  off  day,  the  more  so  as  there  was  a  newly- 
found  cave  in  the  neighbourhood  which  I  was 
anxious  to  explore  thoroughly.  Incidentally  I 

98 


THE  LIZARD  99 

may  mention  that  cave-hunting  and  shooting 
were  then  my  chief  two  amusements. 

It  was  my  keeper  who  brought  me  news  to  the 
inn  about  the  impossibility  of  shooting,  and  I 
suggested  to  him  that  he  should  come  with  me 
to  inspect  the  cave.  He  made  some  sort  of 
excuse  —  I  forget  what  —  and  I  did  not  press 
the  matter  further.  He  was  a  Kettlewell  native, 
and  the  dalesmen  up  there  look  upon  the  local 
caves  with  more  awe  than  respect.  They  will 
not  own  up  to  believing  in  bogles,  but  I  fancy 
their  creed  runs  that  way.  I  used  to  have  a 
contempt  for  their  qualms,  but  latterly  I  have 
somehow  or  other  learned  to  respect  them. 

I  had  taken  unwilling  helpers  cave-hunting 
wTith  me  before,  and  found  them  such  a  nuisance 
that  I  had  made  up  my  mind  not  to  be  bothered 
with  them  again ;  so,  as  I  say,  I  did  not  press 
for  the  keeper's  society ;  but  took  candles,  matches 
in  a  bottle,  some  magnesium  wire,  a  small  coil 
of  rope,  and  a  large  flask  of  whisky,  and  set  off 
alone. 

The  clouds  above  were  wet,  and  a  fine  rain 
fell  persistently.  I  tramped  off  along  one  of  the 
three  main  roads  that  lead  from  the  village ;  but 
which  road  it  was,  had  better  remain  hidden  for 
the  present.  And  in  time  I  got  off  this  road  and 
cut  over  the  moor. 

What  I  was  looking  for  was  a  fresh  scar  on 
the  hill  side,  caused  by  a  roof-fall  in  one  of  the 
countless  caves  which  honeycomb  this  limestone 


100  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

district ;  and  although  I  had  got  my  bearings 
pretty  accurately,  the  fog  was  so  thick  up  there 
that  I  had  to  take  a  good  dozen  casts  before  I  hit 
upon  the  place. 

I  had  not  seen  it  since  the  8th  of  August, 
when  I  first  stumbled  across  it  by  accident 
whilst  I  was  going  over  the  hill  to  see  how  the 
birds  promised  for  the  following  twelfth ;  and  I 
was  a  good  deal  annoyed  to  find  by  the  boot 
marks  that  quite  a  lot  of  people  had  visited  it  in 
the  interval.  However,  I  hoped  that  the  larger 
part  of  these  were  made  by  shepherds,  and  per 
haps  by  my  own  keepers,  and  remembering  their 
qualms,  trusted  that  I  might  find  the  interior 
still  untainpered  with. 

The  cave  was  easy  enough  to  enter.  There 
was  a  funnel-shaped  slide  of  peat-earth  and  mud 
and  clay  to  start  with,  well  pitted  with  boot 
marks ;  and  then  there  was  a  tumbled  wall  of 
boulders,  slanting  inwards,  down  which  I  crawled 
face  uppermost  till  the  light  behind  me  dwindled. 
The  way  was  getting  pretty  murky,  so  I  lit  up  a 
candle  to  avoid  accidents,  stepped  knee-deep  into 
a  lively  stream  of  water,  and  went  briskly  ahead. 
It  was  an  ordinary  enough  limestone  cave  so 
far,  with  inferior  stalactites,  and  a  good  deal  of 
wet  everywhere.  It  did  not  appear  to  have  been 
disturbed,  and  I  stepped  along  cheerfully. 

Presently  I  got  a  bit  of  a  shock.  The  roof 
above  began  to  droop  downwards,  slowly  but 
relentlessly.  It  seemed  as  though  my  way  was 


THE   LIZARD  101 

soon  going  to  be  blocked.  However,  the  water 
beneath  deepened,  and  so  I  waded  along  to  in 
spect  as  far  on  as  possible.  It  was  a  cold  job, 
for  the  water  was  icy,  but  then  I  am  a  bit  of  an 
enthusiast  about  cave-hunting,  and  it  takes  more 
than  a  trifle  of  discomfort  to  stop  me. 

The  roof  came  down  and  down  till  I  was 
forced  into  the  water  up  to  my  chin,  and  the  air 
too  was  none  of  the  best.  I  was  beginning  to 
get  disappointed :  it  looked  as  if  I  had  got  wet 
through  to  the  bone  with  freezing  cold  cave  water 
for  no  adequate  result. 

However,  there  is  no  accounting  for  the  freaks 
of  caves.  Just  when  I  fancied  I  was  at  the  end 
of  my  tether,  up  went  the  roof  again ;  I  was  able 
to  stand  erect  once  more;  and  a  dozen  yards  fur 
ther  on  I  came  out  on  to  dry  rock,  and  was  able 
to  have  a  rest  and  a  drop  of  whisky.  The  roof 
had  quite  disappeared  to  candle-light  overhead,  so 
I  burned  a  foot  of  magnesium  wire  for  a  better 
inspection.  It  was  really  a  magnificent  cave. 

But  I  did  not  stop  to  make  any  accurate 
measurements  or  drawings  then,  and  for  reasons 
which  will  appear,  I  have  not  been  near  to  do  so 
since.  I  was  too  cold  to  care  for  prolonged 
admiration,  and  I  wanted  to  (so  to  speak)  annex 
the  whole  of  the  cave's  main  contours  before  I 
took  my  departure.  I  was  first  man  in,  and 
wished  to  be  able  to  describe  the  whole  of  my 
find.  There  is  a  certain  keen  emulation  about 
these  matters  amongst  cave-hunters. 


102  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

So  I  walked  on  over  the  flat  floor  of  rock, 
stepping  over  and  through  pools,  and  round 
boulders,  and  dodging  round  stalactites  which 
hung  from  the  unseen  roof  above,  and  slipping 
between  slimy  palings  of  stalagmite  which 
sprouted  from  the  floor.  And  then  I  came  to  a 
regular  big  subterranean  tarn  which  stretched 
right  across  the  cavern. 

Spaces  were  big  here  and  the  candle  did  little 
to  show  them.  It  burned  brightly  enough  and 
that  pleased  me :  one  has  to  be  very  careful  in 
cave-hunting  about  foul  air,  because  once  over 
come  by  that,  it  means  certain  death  if  one  is 
alone.  The  air  in  this  cave,  however,  did  not 
altogether  pass  muster ;  there  was  something  new 
about  it,  and  anything  new  in  cave  smells  is 
always  suspicious.  It  wasn't  the  smell  of  peat, 
or  iron,  or  sandstone,  or  limestone,  or  fungus, 
though  all  these  are  common  enough  in  caves ; 
it  was  a  sort  of  faint  musky  smell ;  and  I  had 
got  an  idea  that  it  was  in  flavour  rather  sickly. 
It  is  hard  to  define  these  things,  but  that  smell, 
although  it  might  very  possibly  lead  to  a  new 
discovery,  somehow  did  not  cheer  me.  In  fact 
at  times,  when  I  inhaled  a  deeper  breath  of  it 
than  usual,  it  came  very  near  to  making  my  flesh 
creep. 

However,  hesitations  of  this  kind  are  not  busi 
ness.  I  nipped  off  another  foot  of  magnesium 
wire,  lit  it  at  the  candle,  and  held  the  flaming 
end  high  above  my  head.  Before  me  the  water 


THE  LIZARD  103 

of  the  tarn  lay  motionless  as  a  mirror  of  black 
glass ;  the  sides  vignetted  away  into  alleys  and 
bays ;  the  roof  was  a  groined  and  fretted  dome, 
far  overhead ;  and  at  the  further  side  was  a 
beach  of  white  tumbled  limestone. 

I  pitched  a  stone  into  the  black  water,  and  the 
mirror  woke  (I  was  pleased  to  think)  for  the 
first  time  during  a  million  years  into  ripples. 
Yes,  it's  worth  even  a  year  of  hard  cave-hunting 
to  do  a  thing  like  that. 

The  stone  sank  with  a  luscious  plop.  The 
water  was  very  deep.  But  I  was  wet  to  the 
neck  already,  and  didn't  mind  a  swim.  So  with 
a  lump  of  clay  I  stuck  one  candle  in  my  cap ; 
set  up  a  couple  more  on  the  dry  rock  as  a  light 
house  to  guide  my  return ;  lowered  myself  into 
the  black  water,  and  struck  out.  The  smell  of 
musk  oppressed  me,  and  I  fancied  it  was  grow 
ing  more  pronounced.  So  I  didn't  dawdle. 
Roughly,  I  guessed  the  pool  to  be  some  five-and- 
thirty  yards  across. 

I  landed  amongst  the  white,  broken  limestone 
on  the  further  side,  with  a  shiver  and  a  scramble, 
and  there  was  no  doubt  about  the  smell  of  musk 
now;  it  was  strong  enough  to  make  me  cough. 
But  when  I  had  stood  up,  got  the  candle  in  my 
hand  again,  and  peered  about  through  the  dark, 
a  thrill  came  through  me  as  I  thought  I  guessed 
at  the  cause.  A  dozen  yards  further  on  amongst 
the  tumbled  stone  was  a  broken  "cast,"  where 
some  monstrous  uncouth  animal  had  been  en- 


104  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

tombed  in  the  forgotten  ages  of  the  past,  and 
mouldered  away  and  left  only  the  outer  shell  of 
its  form  and  shape.  For  ages  this  too  had 
endured ;  indeed  it  had  only  been  violated  by 
the  eroding  touch  of  the  water  and  some  earth 
tremor  within  the  last  few  days :  perhaps  at  the 
same  time  that  the  "  slip "  was  made  in  the 
moor  far  above,  which  made  an  entrance  to 
the  caves. 

The  "  cast "  was  half  full  of  splintered  rubbish, 
but  even  as  it  was  I  could  see  the  contour  of  its 
sides  in  many  places,  and  with  care  the  debris 
could  be  scooped  out,  and  a  workman  could  with 
plaster  of  Paris  make  an  exact  model  of  this  beast 
which  had  been  lost  to  the  world's  knowledge 
for  so  many  weary  millions  of  years.  It  had 
been  some  sort  of  a  lizard  or  a  crocodile,  and  in 
fancy  I  was  beginning  to  picture  its  restored 
shape  posed  in  the  National  Museum  with  my 
name  underneath  as  discoverer,  when  my  eye  fell 
on  something  amongst  the  rubble  which  brought 
me  to  earth  with  a  jar.  I  stooped  and  picked  it 
up.  It  was  a  common  white-handled  penknife, 
of  the  variety  sold  by  stationers  for  a  shilling. 
On  one  side  of  it  was  the  name  of  Wilfred  Cecil 
Cording  (or  Cordy),  scratched  apparently  with  a 
nail.  The  work  was  neat  enough  to  start  with, 
but  the  engraver  had  wearied  with  his  job  ;  and 
the  "  Cecil  "  was  slip-shod,  and  the  surname  too 
scratchy  to  be  certain  about. 

On  the  hot  impulse  of  the  moment,  I  threw  the 


THE   LIZARD  105 

knife  far  from  me  into  the  black  water,  and  swore. 
It  is  more  than  a  bit  unpleasant  for  an  explorer 
who  has  made  a  big  discovery  to  find  that  he  has 
been  forestalled.  But  since  then  I  have  more 
than  once  regretted  the  hard  things  I  said  against 
Cording  (if  that  is  his  name)  in  the  heat  of  my 
first  passion.  If  the  man  is  alive,  I  apologise  to 
him.  If,  as  I  strongly  suspect,  he  came  to  a 
horrible  end  there  in  the  cave,  I  tender  my  regrets 
to  his  relatives. 

I  looked  upon  the  cast  of  the  saurian  now, 
with  the  warmth  of  discovery  quite  gone.  I 
was  conscious  of  cold,  and  moreover  the  musky 
smell  of  the  place  was  vastly  unpleasant.  And 
I  think  I  should  straightway  have  gone  back  to 
daylight  and  a  change  of  clothes  down  in  Kettle- 
well,  but  for  one  thing.  I  seemed  somehow  or 
other  to  trace  on  the  rock  beneath  me  the  outline 
of  another  cast.  It  was  hazy,  as  a  thing  of  the 
kind  would  be  if  seen  through  the  medium  of 
sparsely  transparent  limestone,  and  by  the  light 
of  a  solitary  paraffin-wax  candle.  I  kicked  at  it 
petulantly. 

Some  flakes  of  stone  shelled  off,  and  I  dis 
tinctly  heard  a  more  extensive  crack. 

I  kicked  again,  harder ;  with  all  my  might  in 
fact.  More  flakes  shelled  away,  and  there  was  a 
little  volley  of  cracks  this  time.  It  did  not  feel 
like  kicking  against  stone.  It  was  like  kicking 
against  something  that  gave.  And  I  could  have 
sworn  that  the  muskv  smell  increased.  I  felt 


106  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

a  curious  glow  coming  over  me  that  was  part 
fright,  part  excitement,  part  (I  fancy)  nausea;  but 
plucked  up  my  courage,  and  held  my  breath,  and 
kicked  again,  and  again,  and  again.  The  laminae 
of  limestone  flew  up  in  tinkling  showers.  There 
was  no  doubt  about  there  being  something  springy 
underneath  now,  and  that  it  was  the  dead  carcass 
of  another  lizard,  I  hadn't  a  doubt.  Here  was 
luck ;  here  was  a  find.  Here  was  I,  the  discov 
erer  of  the  body  of  a  prehistoric  beast  preserved 
in  the  limestone  down  through  all  the  ages,  just 
as  mammoths  have  been  preserved  in  Siberian 
ice. 

The  quarrying  of  my  boot-heel  was  too  slow 
for  me.  I  stuck  my  candle  by  its  clay  socket  to 
a  rock,  and  picked  up  a  handy  boulder  and  beat 
away  the  sheets  of  the  stone  with  that ;  and  all 
the  time  I  toiled,  the  springiness  of  the  carcass 
beneath  distinctly  helped  me.  The  smell  of  musk 
nearly  made  me  sick,  but  I  stuck  to  the  work. 
There  was  no  doubt  about  it  now.  More  than 
once  I  barked  my  knuckles  against  the  harsh, 
scaly  skin  of  the  beast  itself  —  against  the  skin 
of  this  anachronism  which  ought  to  have  perished 
body  and  bones  ten  million  years  ago.  I  remem 
ber  wondering  whether  they  would  make  me  a 
baronet  for  the  discovery.  They  do  make  scien 
tific  baronets  nowadays  for  the  bigger  finds. 

Then  of  a  sudden  I  got  a  start :  I  could  have 
sworn  the  dead  flesh  moved  beneath  me. 

But  I  shouted  aloud  at  myself  in  contempt. 


THE  LIZARD  107 

"  Pah  !  "  I  said,  "  ten  million  years ;  the  ghost  is 
rather  stale  by  this  ! "  And  I  set  to  work  afresh, 
beating  away  the  stone  which  covered  the  beast 
from  my  sight. 

But  again  I  got  a  start,  and  this  time  it  was  a 
more  solid  one.  After  I  had  delivered  my  blow 
and  whilst  I  was  raising  my  weapon  for  another, 
a  splinter  of  stone  broke  away  as  if  pressed  up 
from  below,  flipped  up  in  the  air,  and  tinkled 
back  to  a  standstill.  My  blood  chilled,  and  for 
a  moment  the  loneliness  of  that  unknown  cave 
oppressed  me.  But  I  told  myself  that  I  was  an 
old  hand ;  that  this  was  childishness ;  and,  in 
fact,  pulled  myself  together.  I  refused  to  ac 
cept  the  hint.  I  deliberately  put  the  candle  so 
as  to  throw  a  better  light,  swallowed  back  my 
tremors,  and  battered  afresh  at  the  laminated 
rock. 

Twice  more  I  was  given  warnings  and  disre 
garded  them  in  the  name  of  what  I  was  pleased 
to  call  cold  common  reason ;  but  the  third  time 
I  dropped  the  battering  stone  as  though  it  burnt 
me,  and  darted  back  with  the  most  horrible 
shock  of  terror  which  (I  make  bold  to  say)  any 
man  could  endure  and  still  retain  his  senses. 

There  was  no  doubt  about  it,  the  beast  was 
actually  moving. 

Yes,  moving  and  alive.  It  was  writhing,  and 
straining,  and  struggling  to  leave  its  rocky  bed, 
where  it  had  lain  quiet  through  all  those  count 
less  cycles  of  time,  and  I  watched  it  in  a  very 


108  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

petrifaction  of  terror.  Its  efforts  threw  up  whole 
baskets  full  of  splintered  stone  at  a  time.  I  could 
see  the  muscles  of  its  back  ripple  at  each  effort. 
I  could  see  the  exposed  part  of  its  body  grow  in 
size  every  time  it  wrenched  at  the  walls  of  that 
semi-eternal  prison. 

Then,  as  I  looked,  it  doubled  up  its  back  like 
a  bucking  horse,  and  drew  out  its  stumpy  head 
and  long  feelers,  giving  out  the  while  a  thin, 
small  scream  like  a  hurt  child ;  and  then  with 
another  effort  it  pulled  out  its  long  tail  and  stood 
upon  the  debris  of  the  limestone,  panting  with  a 
new-found  life. 

I  gazed  upon  it  with  a  sickly  fascination.  Its 
body  was  about  the  bigness  of  two  horses.  Its 
head  was  curiously  short,  but  the  mouth  opened 
back  almost  to  the  forearm  ;  and  sprouting  from 
the  nose  were  two  enormous  feelers,  or  antennae, 
each  at  least  six  feet  long,  and  tipped  with  fleshy 
tendrils  like  fingers,  which  opened  and  shut 
tremulously.  Its  four  legs  were  jointless,  and 
ended  in  mere  club  feet,  or  callosities;  its  tail 
was  long,  supple,  and  fringed  on  the  top  with  a 
saw-like  row  of  scales.  In  colour  it  was  a  bright 
grass-green,  all  except  the  feelers,  which  were  of 
a  livid  blue.  But  mere  words  go  poorly  for  a 
description,  and  the  beast  was  outside  the  vocabu 
lary  of  to-day.  It  conveyed  somehow  or  other  a 
horrible  sense  of  deformity,  which  made  one 
physically  ill  to  look  upon  it. 

But  worst  of  all  was  the  musky  smell.     That 


THE  LIZARD  109 

increased  till  it  became  well-nigh  unendurable, 
and  though  I  half-strangled  myself  to  suppress 
a  sound,  I  had  to  yield  at  last  and  give  my  feel 
ings  vent. 

The  beast  heard  me.  I  could  not  see  that  it 
had  any  ears,  but  anyway  it  distinctly  heard  me. 
Worse,  it  hobbled  round  clumsily  with  its  joint- 
less  legs,  and  waved  its  feelers  in  my  direction. 
I  could  not  make  out  that  it  had  any  eyes ;  any 
way  they  did  not  show  distinct  from  the  rough 
skin  of  its  head ;  its  sensitiveness  seemed  to  lie 
in  those  fathom-long  feelers  and  in  the  fleshy 
fingers  which  twitched  and  grappled  at  the  end 
of  them. 

Then  it  opened  its  great  jaws,  which  hinged, 
as  I  said,  down  by  the  forearm,  and  yawned  cav- 
ernously,  and  came  towards  me.  It  seemed  to 
have  no  trace  of  fear  or  hesitation.  It  hobbled 
clumsily  on,  exhibiting  its  monstrous  deformity  in 
every  movement,  and  preceded  always  by  those 
hateful  feelers,  which  seemed  to  be  endued  with 
an  impish  activity. 

For  a  while  I  stayed  in  my  place,  too  par 
alysed  by  horror  by  this  awful  thing  I  had 
dragged  up  from  the  forgotten  dead  to  move 
or  breathe.  But  then  one  of  its  livid  blue  feel 
ers —  a  hard  armoured  thing  like  a  lobster's  — 
touched  me,  and  the  fleshy  fingers  at  the  end  of 
it  pawed  my  face  and  burned  me  like  nettles.  I 
leaped  into  movement  again.  The  beast  was 
hungry  after  its  fast  of  ten  million  years ;  it 


110  ATOMS   OF    EMPIRE 

was  trying  to  make  me  its  prey ;  those  fearful 
jaws 

I  turned  and  ran. 

It  followed  me.  In  the  feeble  light  of  the  one 
solitary  candle  I  could  see  it  following  accurately 
in  my  track,  with  the  waving  feelers  and  their 
twitching  fingers  preceding  it.  It  had  pace,  too. 
Its  gait,  with  those  clumsy,  jointless  legs,  reminded 
one  of  a  barrel-bellied  sofa  suddenly  endowed  with 
life,  and  careering  over  rough  ground.  But  it 
distinctly  had  pace.  And  what  was  worse,  the 
pace  increased.  At  first  it  had  the  rust  of  those 
eternal  ages  to  work  out  of  its  cankered  joints ; 
but  this  stiffness  passed  away ;  and  presently  it 
was  following  me  with  a  speed  equal  to  my  own. 

If  this  huge  green  beast  had  shown  anger,  or 
eagerness,  or  any  of  those  things,  it  would  have 
been  less  horrible ;  but  it  was  absolutely  unemo 
tional  in  its  hunt,  and  this  helped  to  paralyse 
me ;  and  in  the  end  when  it  drove  me  into  a  cul 
de  sac  amongst  the  rocks,  I  was  very  near  sur 
rendering  myself  through  sheer  terror  to  what 
seemed  the  inevitable.  I  wondered  dully  whether 
there  had  been  another  beast  entombed  beside  it, 
and  whether  that  had  eaten  the  man  who  owned 
the  penknife  —  Cordy,  or  Cording,  his  name  was. 

But  the  idea  warmed  me  up.  I  had  a  stout 
knife  in  my  own  pocket,  and  after  some  fum 
bling  got  it  out  and  opened  the  blade.  The 
feelers  with  their  fringe  of  fumbling  fingers 
were  close  to  me.  I  slashed  at  them  viciously, 


THE   LIZARD  111 

and  felt  my  knife  grate  against  their  armour. 
I  might  as  well  have  hacked  at  an  iron  rail. 

Still  the  attempt  did  me  good.  There  is  an 
animal  love  for  fighting  stowed  away  in  the  bot 
tom  of  all  of  us  somewhere,  and  mine  woke  then. 
I  don't  know  that  I  expected  to  win ;  but  I  did 
intend  to  do  the  largest  possible  amount  of  dam 
age  before  I  was  caught.  I  made  a  rush,  stepped 
with  one  foot  on  the  beast's  creeping  back,  and 
leaped  astern  of  him ;  and  the  beast  gave  its  thin, 
small  scream,  and  turned  quickly  in  chase  after  me. 

The  pace  was  getting  terrific.  We  doubled, 
and  turned,  and  sprawled,  and  leapt  amongst 
the  slimy  boulders,  and  every  time  we  came  to 
close  quarters  I  stabbed  at  the  beast  with  my 
knife,  but  without  ever  finding  a  joint  in  its 
armour.  The  tough  skin  gave  to  the  weight  of 
the  blows,  it  is  true,  but  it  was  like  stabbing 
with  a  stick  upon  leather. 

It  was  clear,  though,  that  this  could  not  go  on. 
The  beast  grew  in  strength  and  activity,  and 
probably  in  dumb  anger,  though  actually  it  was 
unemotional  as  ever;  but  I  was  every  moment 
growing  more  blown,  and  more  bruised,  and 
more  exhausted. 

At  last  I  tripped  and  fell.  The  beast  with 
its  clumsy  waddle  shot  past  me  before  it  could 
pull  up,  and  in  desperation  I  threw  one  arm  and 
my  knees  around  its  grass-green  tail,  and  with 
my  spare  hand  drove  the  knife  with  the  full 
of  my  force  into  the  underneath  of  its  body. 


112  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

That  woke  it  at  last.  It  writhed,  and  it 
plunged,  and  it  bucked  with  a  frenzy  that  I  had 
never  seen  before,  and  its  scream  grew  in  pierc- 
ingness  till  it  was  strong  as  the  whistle  of  a 
steam  engine.  But  still  I  hung  doggedly  on  to  my 
place,  and  planted  my  vicious  blows.  The  great 
beast  doubled  and  tried  to  reach  me  ;  it  flung  its 
livid  blue  feelers  backwards  in  vain  efforts  :  I 
was  beyond  its  clutch.  And  then,  with  my 
weight  still  on  its  back,  it  gave  over  dancing 
about  the  floor  of  the  cavern,  and  set  off  at  its 
hobbling  gait  directly  for  the  water. 

Not  till  it  reached  the  brink  did  I  slip  off ; 
but  I  saw  it  plunge  in  ;  I  saw  it  swim  strongly 
with  its  tail ;  and  then  I  saw  it  dive  and  dis 
appear  for  good. 

And  what  next  ?  I  took  to  the  water  too,  and 
swam  as  I  had  never  swam  before — swam  for  dear 
life,  to  the  opposite  side.  I  knew  that  if  I  waited 
to  cool  my  thoughts,  I  should  never  pluck  up 
courage  for  the  attempt.  It  was  then  or  not  at 
all.  It  was  risk  the  horrors  of  that  passage,  or 
stay  where  I  was  and  starve  —  and  be  eaten. 

How  I  got  across  I  do  not  know.  How  I 
landed  I  cannot  tell.  How  I  got  down  the 
windings  of  the  cave  and  through  that  water 
alley  is  more  than  I  can  say.  And  whether  the 
beast  followed  me  I  do  not  know  either.  I  got 
to  daylight  again  somehow,  staggering  like  a 
drunken  man.  I  struggled  down  off  the  moor, 
and  on  to  the  village,  and  noted  how  the  people 


THE  LIZARD  113 

ran  from  me.  At  the  inn  the  landlord  cried  out 
as  though  I  had  been  the  plague.  It  seemed 
that  the  musky  smell  that  I  brought  with  me 
was  unendurable,  though  by  this  time  the  mere 
detail  of  a  smell  was  far  beneath  my  notice. 
But  I  was  stripped  from  my  stinking  clothes 
and  washed  and  put  to  bed,  and  a  doctor  came 
and  gave  me  an  opiate ;  and  when  twelve  hours 
later  wakefulness  came  to  me  again,  I  had  the 
sense  to  hold  my  tongue.  All  the  village  wanted 
to  know  from  whence  came  that  hateful  odour 
of  musk,  but  I  said  stupidly  I  did  not  know.  I 
said  "  I  must  have  fallen  into  something." 

And  there  the  matter  ends  for  the  present. 
I  go  no  more  cave-hunting,  and  I  offer  no  help 
to  those  who  do.  But  if  the  man  who  owned 
that  white-handled  penknife  is  alive,  I  should 
like  to  compare  experiences  with  him ;  and  if, 
as  I  strongly  suspect,  he  is  dead,  these  pages 
may  be  of  interest  to  his  relatives.  He  was  not 
known  in  Kettlewell  or  any  of  the  other  villages 
where  I  inquired,  but  he  could  very  well  have 
come  over  the  hills  from  Pateley  Bridge  way. 
Cording  was  the  name  scratched  on  the  knife, 
or  Cordy  :  I  could  not  be  sure  which ;  and,  as  I 
have  said,  mine  is  M'Cray,  and  I  can  be  heard  of 
at  the  Kettlewell  Post  Office,  though  I  have  given 
up  the  shooting  on  the  moor  near  there.  Some 
how  the  air  of  the  district  sickens  me.  There 
seems  to  be  a  taint  in  it. 


VII 
HELD  UP 

ALTHOUGH  he  did  attempt  most  callously  to 
slay  me  in  my  boots  within  half  an  hour  of  our 
ceasing  the  game,  I  will  say  that  Quintal  played 
dollar-limit  poker  like  a  gentleman.  So  also  did 
the  fat  man ;  but  as  he  rarely  opened  his  lips 
except  to  raise  or  call,  his  agreeableness  was 
more  of  a  negative  order. 

Quintal,  on  the  other  hand,  was  as  good  a 
conversationalist  as  I've  met  —  a  trifle  new  Eng- 
landish,  to  be  sure,  but  none  the  less  entertain 
ing.  We  were  the  only  three  passengers  in  the 
Pullman,  and  had  foregathered  in  the  smoking- 
room,  where  we  doffed  our  coats  in  deference  to 
the  heat.  Within  three  minutes  from  our  meet 
ing,  Quintal  had  read  a  label  on  my  grip-sack 
and  proceeded  to  make  himself  known. 

"  My  name's  Hugh  H.  Quintal,  sir.  I  see  you 
are  Mr.  Calvert,  and  I  guess  from  the  Old  Islands. 
Delighted  to  make  your  acquaintance.  How  do 
you  like  our  country  ?  " 

The  transition  from  this  to  draw-poker  was 
natural  and  easy.  We  commenced  with  quarter- 
limit  ;  sprang  this  to  fifty  cents  for  fear  lest  the 

114 


HELD   UP  115 

game  should  get  slow ;  and,  on  crossing  the 
border  out  of  North  Carolina,  raised  the  limit  to 
a  dollar,  because  South  Carolina  is  a  prohibition 
state,  and  we  were  saving  money  by  being  allowed 
no  drinks. 

I  had  luck,  and  rather  more  than  held  my 
own  ;  but  the  fat  man  played  by  far  the  smart 
est  game  of  the  three,  gave  his  whole  attention 
to  it,  and  won  money.  Quintal  did  the  paying. 
He  was  useful  enough  with  the  cards,  but  he 
would  let  his  attention  wander.  He  talked  on 
ten  new  subjects  every  quarter  of  an  hour.  His 
nerves  seemed  to  be  on  springs. 

We  played  in  our  shirt-sleeves  because  of  the 
heat.  Once  when  I  had  got  up  and  turned  to  get 
a  handkerchief  from  my  jacket  which  was  hang 
ing  from  one  of  the  brackets,  he  said,  "  It's  plain 
to  see  you're  not  an  Amurrican,  Mr.  Calvert." 

I  laughed,  and  placed  a  suggestive  hand  upon 
my  hip.  There  was  no  sly-pocket  there.  "  Oh, 
yes,"  said  I,  "  that's  been  commented  on  before ; 
but  I  prefer  not  to  go  heeled.  You  know  we've 
an  insular  prejudice  in  favour  of  our  hands.  And 
I'm  pretty  useful  with  them." 

Mr.  Quintal  shook  his  head.  "  Gimme  a  gun, 
sir,  and  then  I'm  safe.  I  know  your  British 
theory  of  rushing  a  man  before  he's  lined  you  on 
his  bead.  But  I  don't  hold  to  them  fancy 
touches.  I'm  no  acrobat  myself.  I  guess  I'd 
feel  very  mean  if  a  gentleman  was  to  start 
pumping  lead  into  my  lot  and  I'd  no  show  to 


116  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

see  him  better.  You  see,  sir,  where  I  was  raised 
they  told  me  this  proverb :  '  Whoso  tarrieth  on 
the  draw,  and  landeth  not  his  bullet  on  the  cor 
rect  button,  that  man  shall  be  planted  before  he 
reach eth  prime.'  No,  siree ;  it's  the  invariable 
custom  amongst  gentlemen  in  the  South  to  carry 
a  gun  in  the  hip  pocket,  because  they  know  it's 
as  conducive  to  health  as  the  habit  of  wearing 
shirts.  You  bet  they  don't  tote  a  pistol  round 
for  the  fun  of  the  exercise.  Now  I  must  go  and 
suck  at  the  ice-water.  I  guess  this  temperature's 
making  me  lard  some." 

We  played  on  another  score  of  rounds,  and 
then  the  conductor  came  in  and  affably  informed 
us  that  Byronville  was  the  next  stoppage. 

"  Getting  out  ?  "  inquired  the  fat  man. 

"  No,  I'm  going  through." 

"So  are  we,"  said  Quintal.  "Eh,  well,  I'm 
loser  over  this  gamble,  so  I  can  propose.  What 
do  you  say  to  dropping  the  game  after  Byron 
ville  ?  We've  a  long  run  on  to  the  next  stop, 
and  we  shall  have  the  Pullman  all  to  ourselves. 
There'll  be  nobody  getting  on  here,  only  an  old 
nigger  or  so  for  the  second  class.  We  might  peg 
out  claims  in  this  car  and  throw  in  an  hour's 
siesta.  I  guess  we're  too  hot  ourselves  to  put 
much  fever  into  poker  just  now." 

The  fat  man  stacked  the  cards  by  way  of 
answer,  and  chucked  them  on  the  table.  We 
settled  for  our  outstanding  chips.  I  put  up  my 
feet  on  the  seat  and  nodded  wearily.  Then  the 


HELD   UP  117 

other  two  yawned,  mopped  their  faces,  and 
passed  through  the  alley-way  to  the  other  end 
of  the  car. 

Forests  passed  by  the  window,  cornfields  and 
plantations  of  bumble-bee  cotton,  and  then  more 
forests ;  and  then  the  cars  passed  through  a  red, 
rain-furrowed  cutting,  and  rumbled  out  over  a 
trestle.  They  were  travelling  fast,  and  swayed  a 
good  deal.  The  motion  would  have  made  some 
people  sea-sick.  Me  it  sent  off  into  a  doze,  spite 
of  the  heat. 

Of  a  sudden  I  was  disturbed.  My  eyelids  rose 
with  a  snap,  and  I  sat  up  listening.  Then  the 
sound  which  had  aroused  me  was  repeated  —  a 
woman's  shrill  cry,  a  squeal  brought  out  by  arrant 
terror.  I  dropped  to  my  feet,  strode  through  the 
doorway  of  the  smoking-room,  and  down  the 
alley-way  behind  it.  The  Pullman  was  empty. 

Above  the  clang  and  rattle  of  the  train  I  could 
make  out  one  voice  speaking  in  loud  tones  from 
the  next  car,  to  the  blurred  accompaniment  of 
women's  sobs.  Had  I  been  anything  but  a  ten 
derfoot  then,  I  should  have  stopped  in  my  tracks, 
thanked  God  for  leaving  me  out  of  a  mess,  and 
done  nothing  more.  As  it  was  I  opened  the  door 
at  the  end  of  the  Pullman,  crossed  the  swing 
gangway,  and  entered  the  next  car  —  the  ordi 
nary  first  class. 

There  I  saw  a  sight  which  filled  me  with  amaze 
ment.  All  the  passengers  in  the  car,  men  and 
women  alike,  to  the  number  of  quite  two  dozen, 


118  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

were  sitting  with  their  hands  forked  out  above 
their  shoulders.  They  looked  for  all  the  world 
as  though  they  were  voting  eagerly  upon  some 
pressing  question.  In  truth  they  were  doing 
this  —  they  were  voting  against  being  shot ;  and  < 
the  fat  man  of  my  recent  acquaintance  was 
standing  in  the  further  doorway  of  the  car,  with  a 
heavy  revolver  in  each  fist,  superintending  their 
election. 

His  beady  eye  caught  me  on  the  moment  of 
my  entrance,  and  the  pistol  muzzle  swung  up 
and  covered  me.  Though  the  whole  length  of 
the  car  separated  us,  that  tube  of  iron  seemed  to 
grow  till  its  black  depths  were  wide  enough  for 
a  dog  to  crawl  in. 

«  Up  with  your  hands,  you  meddling  fool ;  or 
you're  a  dead  man  !  " 

The  hail  put  spirit  into  me  again.  I  would 
not  shame  my  manhood  by  joining  in  this  tame 
surrender.  I  turned  sharply  and  fled,  and  the  fat 
man's  bullet  coming  faster,  snipped  the  lobe  of  my 
ear.  Then  I  got  on  the  steps  of  the  platform, 
and  the  noise  of  the  train  drowned  the  sounds 
from  within  the  car. 

The  sear  of  the  pistol-shot  made  me  dizzy  for 
the  moment,  and  I  hung  on  to  the  iron  cleat  at 
the  angle  of  the  car  for  a  good  minute  without 
taking  any  action.  I  was  adding  up  the  situa 
tion. 

The  Pullman  was  empty :  the  folk  in  the  first- 
class  car  were  "  held  up  "  by  the  fat  man  with  an 


HELD   UP  119 

obvious  view  to  pillage.  But  forward  of  that 
there  was  the  second-class  car,  where  the  coloured 
people  travel,  and  which  was  certain  to  be  tenanted 
by  a  small  number  of  white  men  who  wanted  to 
smoke.  Forward,  again,  were  a  brace  of  express 
cars  with  the  usual  complement  of  baggage  men 
of  both  tints  of  complexion.  It  was  obvious  that 
the  fat  man  could  not  hold  these  in  awe,  and 
equally  obvious  that  some  one  else  was  prevent 
ing  them  from  taking  him  in  the  rear.  As  the 
majority  of  the  whites  disregard  that  law  of  the 
United  States  anent  the  carrying  of  concealed 
weapons,  so  also  do  the  coloured  sections.  >  A 
male  nigger  without  a  razor  hidden  somewhere 
about  his  person  is  a  biped  mighty  hard  to  find. 

"  So,"  thought  I,  "  there's  bound  to  be  another 
man  in  this,  and  if  he  doesn't  coincide  with 
friend  Quintal,  I'm  Yankee.  Now  I  can  under 
stand  his  nervous  chatter  in  the  smoking-room. 
I  don't  owe  him  any  personal  grudge,  but  on 
general  principles  I'm  going  to  try  and  damage 
this  new  game,  if  it's  only  to  prove  that  fists 
may  stand  against  pistols." 

With  that  I  set  to  and  clambered  on  to  the 
roof  of  the  first-class  car,  a  job  which  was  by  no 
means  easy,  because  the  eaves  sloped,  and  the 
train  was  swinging  and  swaying  most  con- 
sumedly.  But  I  landed  at  last,  ran  along,  and 
jumping  three  gaps,  reached  the  further  end  of 
the  foremost  express  car. 

The  engineer  stuck  his  head  through  a  win- 


120  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

dow  of  the  cab,  stared  for  a  moment  with  blank 
amazement,  and  then  covered  me  with  a  prompt 
revolver. 

"  Don't  shoot ! "  I  yelled,  and  then  told  him 
what  was  happening.  "  You'd  better  pull  up," 
said  I. 

"  What,  and  play  their  game  ?  Not  likely.  I 
guess  I'll  steam  'em  right  up  to  the  calabose  at 
the  next  stop." 

He  had  hardly  got  out  the  words  through  his 
teeth  when  a  heavy  grinding  roar  made  itself 
heard  down  all  the  length  of  the  train,  and  speed 
was  perceptibly  slackened. 

"By  gum,"  said  the  engineer,  "they've  more 
savvy  than  I  gave  'em  credit  for.  They've  got 
at  something  —  sliced  through  the  linking  pipe 
of  the  Westinghouse  with  a  bowie,  likely  —  and 
that's  '  down  brakes '  all  along.  This  blame'  old 
kettle  '11  never  pull  them  cars  up  the  next  grade 
agin  that  drag." 

"Then  come  along  with  me,  and  rush  the 
scoundrels  from  this  end  of  the  train." 

The  engineer  snorted.  "  I  allow  you  are  queer, 
mister.  No  fancy  shootin'  for  me.  'Sides,  I've 
me  engine  to  see  after.  She'll  cough  herself  to  a 
standstill  directly." 

I  considered  the  engineer  a  coward,  but  didn't 
say  so,  because  of  his  pistol.  However,  I  didn't 
choose  to  stay  where  I  was  like  a  stray  rooster 
on  the  shingles,  so  I  jumped  to  the  coals  on  the 
tender,  and  clambered  thence  on  to  the  platform 


HELD  UP  121 

of  the  foremost  express  car.  I  opened  the  door 
gingerly  and  peered  in. 

A  man  in  shirt-sleeves  was  coming  through  the 
opposite  entrance  at  a  run.  The  quick  snap  of  a 
pistol  shot  rang  out  from  behind  him,  and  the  man 
stumbled.  Then  he  gave  an  upward  spiral  leap 
like  a  dervish,  and  pitched  heavily  forward  on  to 
the  floor.  Not  the  ghost  of  a  cry  escaped  him,  and 
the  thud  of  his  fall  was  drowned  by  the  hoarse 
grinding  of  the  brakes.  As  he  lay,  I  saw  that  the 
back  of  his  skull  was  smashed  in  like  an  egg. 

For  thirty  seconds  I  remained  rooted  in  my 
tracks  staring  stupidly  at  the  horror  before  me. 
The  man  was  the  express  agent.  These  two 
foremost  cars  were  his  own  territory.  The  thick 
of  the  turmoil,  as  I  understood  it,  lay  amongst 
the  passengers'  compartments  behind ;  and  yet 
this  man  had  been  murdered  when  to  all  seem 
ing  he  was  in  full  retreat.  The  matter  was 
beyond  my  comprehension. 

Gaining  courage,  I  worked  my  way  down 
between  the  stacks  of  trunks  and  boxes  with 
which  the  car  was  crammed,  and,  stepping  over 
the  corpse,  cautiously  opened  the  door.  The 
gangway  was  tenantless. 

The  door  of  the  second  express  car  swinging 
idly  on  its  hinges,  showed  me  that  the  car  itself 
held  nothing  animate  except  a  coop  of  game- 
fowls.  The  desertion  of  the  place  puzzled  me : 
there  should  have  been  baggage  men  in  evidence. 

Crossing  the  car  to  the  further  door,  I  opened 


122  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

it  a  couple  of  inches,  and  reconnoitred  through 
the  cranny.  Then  I  gathered  what  had  taken 
place.  Quintal  had  burst  upon  the  express  cars 
and  driven  the  occupants  before  him  towards  the 
rear  of  the  train.  One  of  the  whites  had  broken 
back,  and  fate  had  overtaken  him  in  the  manner 
I  had  seen.  The  rest,  marching  in  grotesque 
procession  with  hands  thrust  up  like  masts  above 
their  heads,  were,  as  I  watched,  forming  rank 
down  the  centre  alley-way  of  the  second-class 
car ;  and,  falling  in  with  them,  were  coloured 
folk  of  both  sexes  and  white  passengers  who 
had  come  there  to  smoke. 

Quintal,  revolver  in  hand,  was  marshalling  the 
procession ;  his  eye  quick  to  note  every  move 
ment,  his  big  voice  speaking '  clearly  of  life  and 
death.  He  held  that  crowd  of  eight-and-twenty 
people  cowed  as  broken-winged  pigeons.  Indeed, 
three  or  four  of  the  men  trembled  so  violently 
that  they  could  barely  keep  their  feet.  The 
women  were  frightened  naturally,  but  none  were 
so  bad  as  this ;  perhaps  they  had  a  lingering 
assurance  that  sex  would  preserve  them  from 
anything  more  deadly  than  wordy  scare. 

The  procession  closed  up  till  the  breast  of  each 
member  lay  on  the  shoulder-blades  of  his  prede 
cessor,  and  then  with  shuffling  steps  it  moved 
down  the  car.  The  door  was  latched.  The 
foremost  man  pressed  it,  and,  slewing  round  his 
head  between  the  framework  of  his  arms,  showed 
me  a  face  of  incarnate  terror. 


HELD   UP  123 

"  I  cayn't  get  through,  boss.  Lemme  drop  one 
of  my  fists  to  turn  the  handle  ?  I  ain't  got  no 
gun  about  me,  boss,  an'  I  swow  I  wont " 

"  Keep  your  claws  up,"  thundered  Quintal. 
"  If  you're  not  past  that  door  before  I  count 
ten,  I'll  blow  you  through  it.  One  —  two  — 
three  — " 

The  frightened  face  turned  away  and  pressed 
against  the  woodwork,  and  the  man's  clenched 
hands  beat  frantically  on  the  door  above  his  head. 

«  Four  —  five  —  " 

The  procession  rustled  and  shivered.  It  felt 
that  murder  was  very  near. 

«  Six  —  seven  —  eight." 

The  long  file  of  people  instinctively  compressed 
itself.  Each  man  thrust  his  hardest.  A  mulatto 
woman  shrieked  in  pain.  The  door,  yielding  to 
the  pressure,  burst  widely  open,  and  the  man 
against  it  shot  out  headlong.  He  clutched  at  the 
rail,  and  missed  it,  toppled  down  the  steps,  and 
fell  on  to  the  side  of  the  track,  rolling  over  and 
over  like  a  half-filled  bag.  The  others  filed  out 
along  the  gangway  and  entered  the  first-class  car, 
joining  the  other  passengers  already  held  under 
the  fat  man's  pistol. 

I  saw  all  these  things  clearly,  and  understood, 
then,  how  two  men  could  stick  up  a  train-load. 
The  majority  know  quite  well  their  potential 
strength,  but  what  they  lack  is  an  initiative.  Each 
man  may  want  to  fight,  but  no  man  dares  to 
make  the  first  burst,  because  he  knows  for  a  fact 


124  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

that  whatever  happens  to  the  rest,  his  own  death 
is  certain. 

Now,  I  had  far  too  great  a  respect  for  Quin 
tal's  marksmanship  to  advance  upon  him  from  the 
open ;  but  when,  after  clearing  the  second-class 
car,  he  turned  abruptly  towards  the  express  car, 
I  fancied  I'd  a  goodish  chance  of  getting  to  hand 
grips  with  him. 

I  waited  in  the  angle  behind  the  door,  rigid  as 
a  box.  With  ears  at  their  highest  strain,  I  made 
out  the  sharp  crunch  of  his  footsteps  advancing 
across  the  gangway  between  the  cars. 

Then  his  knuckles  appeared  on  the  edge  of  the 
door,  and  in  an  instant  my  right  palm  clapped 
down  upon  them.  I  swung  myself  round  with 
all  the  pace  I  could  muster,  intending  to  let  him 
have  the  left  squarely  between  the  eyebrows ; 
but  —  taken  by  surprise  though  he  must  have 
been  —  Quintal  was  too  quick  for  me ;  indeed, 
the  man's  rapidity  of  action  was  something 
almost  more  than  human.  He  had  no  time  to 
raise  a  pistol  higher  than  his  hip.  but  as  I  came 
to  his  view  round  the  angle  of  the  door,  he  pulled 
on  me  from  there,  and  the  bullet  raked  the  skin 
above  my  ribs  like  a  hot  iron,  arid  the  powder 
lit  my  clothing  with  a  splash  of  flame. 

The  shock  made  me  loosen  my  grip  on  his 
fingers  and  stumble  back  over  the  coop  which 
held  the  game-fowls.  Before  I  could  recover  my 
feet  he  was  standing  inside  the  car,  covering  me 
with  a  steady  pistol  muzzle. 


HELD   UP  125 

"  So  you  aren't  killed,  Mr.  Calvert  ?  "  said  he. 
"  'Say,  put  up  your  hands  quick  —  quick,  siree, 
or  you'll  die  in  your  boots  yet ;  I  never  miss  a 
man  twice ;  and  now  march  to  the  other  end  of 
the  car,  whilst  I  manipulate  these  two  empty 
shells." 

He  brought  another  fully-charged  revolver  out 
of  a  pocket,  and,  shifting  it  to  his  right  hand,  cast 
out  the  two  spent  cartridges  from  the  other  and 
refilled  the  chambers,  holding  the  weapon  in  the 
grip  of  his  knees  whilst  he  managed  the  breech 
with  his  left  hand. 

"Nippy  at  it,  aren't  I,  Mr.  Calvert?  That 
makes  me  a  twelve-shot  man  once  more ;  but 
now  —  as  the  train  has  come  to  a  standstill  on 
this  grade,  as  I  calculated  it  would  —  we  must 
get  to  business.  Oblige  me  by  taking  up  the  iron 
safe  in  the  corner  yonder  and  rolling  it  through 
the  side  door  out  on  to  the  track." 

"  Do  your  dirty  thieving  yourself,"  said  I, 
sullenly. 

He  didn't  say  anything ;  he  lifted  up  his  right- 
hand  pistol  to  a  line  with  my  face,  steady  as 
though  it  had  been  glued  there.  Then  he  began 
slowly  to  march  up  the  floor  of  the  car  towards 
me,  with  his  mouth  drawn  up  into  a  leathery 
grin  of  cruelty. 

I  did  his  bidding  then  to  save  my  life.  The 
iron  chest  rolled  out  with  a  dull  thud  on  to  the 
red  earth  outside,  took  a  slow  bound,  and  landed 
with  a  crash  amongst  bushes. 


126  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

"  Good,"  said  Quintal.  "  Now  jump  down 
beside  it." 

I  did  so,  and  he  followed  me.  Then  he  clapped 
a  finger  to  his  mouth  and  whistled.  Presently 
the  fat  man  appeared  on  the  gangway  of  the 
first-class  car,  and  descended  by  the  steps. 

"  I've  told  them,"  said  he,  grimly,  "  and  I 
fancy  they  understand." 

"  Quite  so,"  said  Quintal.  "  I'll  explain  to  the 
others.  Ho  there,  Mr.  Engineer ! " 

No  reply. 

"  In  the  cab,  I  say  !  You  needn't  be  frightened. 
I  won't  shoot  unless  you  provoke  me." 

A  scared,  dirty  face  appeared  through  one  of 
the  windows  of  the  little  iron  pent-house.  Quin 
tal  screwed  his  pistol  muzzle  into  the  back  of 
my  head,  and  continued  :  «  You  see  my  hostage, 
and  how  he's  fixed.  If  you  or  any  one  in  this 
train  makes  the  least  attempt  at  annoying  my 
pard  or  me,  I'll  blow  this  gentleman's  backbone 
through  his  teeth.  And  now  I'll  trouble  you  to 
reverse  that  engine  of  yours  and  back  the  train 
a  mile  down  the  grade,  and  stay  there  for  an 
hour." 

I  saw  the  link-motion  traverse,  and  saw  the 
man  shove  over  his  starting  lever.  Then  the 
engine  coughed  again,  and  the  train  slid  away 
from  me.  All  along  the  cars  windows  shot  up, 
and  savage,  insulted  faces  appeared,  and  nervous 
hands  which  grasped  every  kind  of  weapon.  A 
score  of  muzzles  were  concentrated  on  the  train 


HELD   UP  127 

robbers.  They,  in  their  turn,  made  no  counter 
demonstration  against  the  train.  Both  their 
revolvers  rested  against  my  head.  I  shut  my 
eyes  and  awaited  death.  It  seemed  impossible 
for  me  that  those  humiliated  passengers,  now 
that  their  prey  was  cast  loose,  could  refrain  from 
revenge.  No  one  would  blame  them  heavily  if 
I  fell ;  the  country  would  applaud  if  the  train 
robbers  were  killed.  Hours  seemed  to  pass. 
Then  a  voice  spoke  up,  as  it  seemed,  mistily,  and 
from  a  great  distance. 

"  All  right,  Mr.  Calvert ;  it's  been  a  mighty 
close  call  for  you,  but  I  guess  they  decided  not 
to  see  our  raise  this  round." 

I  opened  my  eyes  and  looked  wildly  down  the 
track.  The  cow-catcher  of  the  engine  was  just 
swaying  out  of  sight  round  a  curve. 

Quintal's  gaze  was  following  mine.  Then  he 
turned  sharply  round  and  whistled  shrilly. 

A  moment's  pause,  and  then  a  return  whistle 
came.  Two  minutes  later  and  a  buckboard  came 
down  a  rough  trail,  drawn  by  two  horses,  driven 
furiously.  Quintal  and  the  fat  man  took  up  the 
safe  and  put  it  over  the  hind  axle. 

"  Two  hundred  thousand-dollar  greenbacks  in 
that  iron  box,"  said  Quintal,  as  he  and  his  part 
ner  got  on  to  the  middle  seat.  "  More  profitable 
game  than  quarter-limit  poker,  I  reckon,  Mr. 
Calvert.  So  long !  " 

And  away  went  the  horses  in  a  big  turning 
circle,  and  spread  out  to  a  gallop  in  the  straight, 


128  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

the  buckboard  (with  the  safe  balanced  across  its 
back  axle)  leaping  after  them  like  a  spring.  The 
trail  twisted  and  turned  amongst  the  trees,  and 
the  buckboard  and  the  robbers  were  soon  out  of 
sight  behind  the  bank  of  forest.  Well,  that  part 
of  the  show  was  apparently  over  for  good,  but  it 
came  to  my  mind  that  there  was  still  a  final  act 
to  be  played  out.  So  I  lit  a  cigar  and  sat  down 
beside  the  track  under  the  shade  of  a  live-oak  to 
wait  for  the  train. 

It  seemed  an  intolerable  time  in  coming  up. 
But  I  heard  the  engine  clanking  up  the  grade  at 
last,  and  presently  it  came  up  level  with  me,  and 
I  jumped  on  to  a  tail-board  as  it  lumbered  heavily 
past. 

My  reception  surprised  me ;  practically  there 
was  no  reception  at  all.  In  the  Pullman,  where 
I  went,  the  passengers  had  apparently  forgotten 
the  event  already.  They  were  sitting  about  in 
the  seats,  listless  with  the  heat,  and  for  the  most 
part  reading,  or  sleeping,  or  fanning  themselves. 
Only  a  small  group  of  three,  who  were  lazily 
talking,  troubled  to  look  up  when  I  entered. 

"'Say,  here's  the  Englishman,"  said  one.  "Had 
a  pleasant  entertainment,  sir,  with  your  friends 
in  the  woods  ?  " 

"  I'm  satisfied  with  it,"  I  said.  "  At  least  I 
can  respect  myself  now." 

The  man  delivered  himself  of  a  tired  smile. 
"Meaning  to  say  we  can't.  'Say,  are  you  a 
shareholder  in  this  road  ?  " 


HELD  UP  129 

«No." 

"  Oh,  I  thought  you  might  be.  You  seemed  to 
put  such  a  lot  of  fuss  into  looking  after  the  safe." 

The  man  yawned,  and  settled  himself  back  in 
his  seat  for  sleep.  It  was  the  only  comment  any 
one  seemed  wishful  to  make  on  my  escapade. 

They  are  a  surprising  people,  the  Americans, 
at  times. 


VIII 
SHOT 


THE  assemblage  drew  up  in  Old  Man  David 
son's  clearing  and  distributed  itself  at  various 
points  of  vantage.  The  prisoner  yawned  and  sat 
himself  on  the  stump  of  a  black  pine.  All  hands 
refreshed  themselves  with  crackers  and  cheese, 
and  a  brand  of  corn-whisky  which  burned  the 
throat  like  fluid  lava.  The  humming-birds  left 
the  trumpet  vines  which  sprawled  over  the  posts 
of  the  piazza,  because  the  loud  chatter  frightened 
them. 

By  degrees  the  crackers  were  done  with,  and 
tobacco  in  its  forty  different  forms  imbibed  in 
their  place.  The  meeting  rustled  and  showed 
itself  ripe  for  business. 

The  man  with  the  Marlin  rifle  slipped  seven 
new  cartridges  into  the  magazine  beneath  the 
barrel,  and  drew  back  the  low  hammer  with  a 
suggestive  click.  Then  he  laid  the  weapon 
tenderly  in  the  crook  of  his  left  arm,  seated  him 
self  on  the  edge  of  the  piazza,  and  lifted  up  his 
voice  in  speech  :  — 

130 


SHOT  131 

"  Boys,  if  you're  all  through,  we'll  form  our 
selves  into  a  court  of  inquiry  over  this  matter. 
Jim,  put  away  the  whisky." 

Young  Davidson  walked  across  to  a  stump 
where  the  demijohn  and  a  glass  were  standing 
amid  a  small  swamp  of  drainings,  and  carried 
them  away  somewhere  within  the  house.  It 
was  a  simple  formality,  but  the  audience  felt  its 
weight.  Most,  unconsciously,  straightened  them 
selves  for  the  moment  out  of  their  lounge ;  one 
man  went  so  far  as  to  comb  his  hair  with  his 
fingers ;  the  prisoner  borrowed  a  wedge  of 
tobacco,  stowed  it  between  his  molars,  and  gave 
an  introductory  squirt  at  a  black  butterfly. 

« Now,"  continued  the  former  speaker,  "  the 
thing  we've  got  to  do  right  now  before  proceed 
ing  further  is  to  choose  a  judge  for  this  court. 
I  move  for  Old  Man  Davidson.  He  was  raised 
on  the  Tennessee  side  of  the  Great  Smokies,  and 
most  of  our  crowd  here  are  North  Carolina  tar- 
heelers.  But  I  don't  see  that  matters.  I  guess 
he's  good  enough  for  us.  Who'll  second  ?  " 

"  I  will,"  said  a  lean  man  who  sat  on  the 
snake-fence.  "  My  bean  goes  for  him  all  the 
way." 

The  prisoner  nodded  easily.  "  I  reckon  Old 
Man  Davidson's  as  white  a  man  as  any  here,"  he 
remarked. 

The  other  members  of  the  court  —  the  rest  of 
the  audience,  that  is  —  signified  their  approval 
by  nods  and  words.  They  had  most  of  them 


132  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

partaken  in  the  chase,  the  fight,  and  the  subse 
quent  capture,  and  naturally  they  felt  the  title  to 
a  strong  voice  in  the  disposing  of  the  prisoner. 
The  trial  was  a  distinctly  parochial  affair,  and 
on  its  issue  several  things  depended.  All  present 
were  interested  directly  or  indirectly  in  the  dis 
tilling  of  corn-whisky,  without  deference  to  the 
Revenue  Laws  of  the  United  States.  For  the 
maintenance  of  this  industry  it  was  necessary 
that  the  delinquent  within  their  power  should 
be  made  into  an  example  and  a  warning,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  faint-hearted  and  the  trans 
gressor. 

Every  one  there  knew  that  the  captive  was 
foreordained  to  death ;  but  now  that  blood 
heated  by  the  chase  had  cooled,  every  one  was 
anxious  that  the  trial  should  be  conducted  with 
due  formality.  Judge  Lynch,  fanatical  and  cruel 
though  he  may  be  when  dealing  writh  the  African 
or  his  kin,  can  seldom  be  accused  of  unfairness  or 
ferocity  when  handling  his  fellow-whites. 

Old  Man  Davidson  glanced  down  at  the  sling 
which  carried  his  left  arm,  and  shook  an  untidy 
grey  head.  "  No,  Steve  ;  no,  boys ;  I  guess  I'd 
better  not  hold  the  bank  this  round.  Ye  see  it 
was  the  prisoner's  gun  that  pumped  lead  into 
this  arm  of  mine,  and  I  wouldn't  like  it  to  be 
said  afterwards  I'd  a  finger  in  hanging  a  man 
just  because  he'd  had  the  drop  on  me."  He 
turned  to  the  prisoner  with  an  explanatory  wave 
of  his  sound  hand.  "  Not  that  I've  any  down  on 


SHOT  133 

ye  for  it,  Macon  County.  I  guess  it  was  a  fair 
fight  right  along." 

"  I  guess  so,"  said  the  prisoner,  with  a  friendly 
nod.  «  You  parted  my  ha'r.  You  shot  with  the 
best  intentions,  Old  Man,  but  you  shot  high. 
Still,  as  you  say,  p'r'aps  it's  best  for  you  not  to 
take  the  chair.  It  might  be  uncomfortable  for 
you  afterwards  in  some  grocery,  and  you'd  have 
to  draw  on  strangers.  People  will  talk." 

"  That's  level-headed,"  said  the  lean  man  on 
the  snake-fence,  and  a  hum  of  approval  went  all 
round  the  ring. 

"  Say,  Steve,"  suggested  Davidson,  "  why  not 
hitch  in  yourself  ?  " 

The  man  who  was  nursing  the  Marlin  nodded 
gravely.  "  If  you  put  it  that  way,  I  don't  see 
why  not.  I'm  not  a  tenderfoot.  I'm  a  whisky- 
miller  like  the  rest  of  you  boys.  In  knocking 
about,  I've  chipped  in  at  this  yer  sort  of  party 
before,  and  I  done  seen  three  men  hanged  out  of 
a  possible  four.  But  don't  let  me  push  myself 
forward,  boys." 

"Wade  in,  Steve,"  said  Macon  County,  en 
couragingly. 

"Prisoner  at  the  bar,"  said  Steve,  angrily, 
"you've  no  vote  here.  Hold  your  blasted 
tongue." 

"  It  seems  kind  o'  hard,  doesn't  it,"  said  Macon 
County,  humorously,  to  the  audience  in  general, 
"  that  I  can't  speak  now  ?  It  don't  take  much 
savvy  to  see  that  soon  I'll  for  ever  have  to  hold 


134  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

my  peace,  if  Steve  doesn't  want  to  lower  his 
record." 

Another  hum  went  round  the  assembly,  a 
mingled  buzz  of  anger  and  surprise.  The  man 
could  not  have  proved  more  strongly  his  reck 
less  indifference  to  what  was  coming  next.  The 
least  ridicule  or  contempt  of  his  court  is  a  mis 
demeanour  which  Judge  Lynch  always  deals  with 
fatally. 

"  See  here,  Macon  County,"  said  Old  Man 
Davidson,  with  curt  emphasis,  "we  trusted  to 
your  word,  and  so  you're  not  roped  up  or  put  to 
any  other  inconvenience.  But  if  we  have  any 
more  of  this  yer  sass,  you'll  find  yourself  chawing 
the  toe  of  my  stirrup-iron  right  away." 

Macon  County  laughed  and  expectorated,  and 
the  trial  proceeded. 

The  accusing  evidence  was  for  the  most  part 
informal,  as  the  prisoner's  crime  was  too  notorious 
to  brook  of  any  contradiction.  In  fact  it  consisted 
merely  of  a  summary  from  the  judge's  own  lips. 
He  waved  a  right  hand  to  the  mountain  side 
before  them,  green  with  unbroken  trees  to  the  hot, 
blue  sky-line  above.  He  told  how  Macon  County 
and  another  man  had  there  run  a  blockade  still,  in 
a  snugly  hidden  clearing.  He  spoke  of  a  raid  by 
their  common  enemy  the  Revenue,  backed  by  a 
brace  of  dare-devil  sheriffs,  and  a  cohort  of  Pink- 
erton  mercenaries.  It  was  all  in  the  ordinary  way 
of  business  :  the  salt  of  their  yearly  cycle.  Macon 
County  happened  to  be  away,  peddling  the  last 


SHOT  135 

brew  of  spirit.  The  other  partner,  Hamilton,  was 
in  residence,  entertaining  a  couple  of  friends.  The 
inevitable  fight  went  briskly  through  its  appointed 
course.  The  raiders  advanced  pluckily  to  the 
storm,  but  the  frame  house  made  a  fortress  which 
they  could  not  reduce ;  and  they  left  their  dead, 
and  picked  up  the  back  trail. 

Hamilton  harassed  the  retreat  with  a  nine-shot 
repeating  twelve  bore  ;  received  untouched  the  fire 
of  the  surviving  sheriff,  and  then  running  in,  fired 
buckshot  into  his  heart  at  pistol  range.  It  was  a 
good  fight,  a  fair  fight,  and  the  heavier  side  was 
beaten.  Hamilton  had  done  well  by  the  mountain 
community. 

The  speaker's  words  came  appreciatively,  but 
in  a  quiet,  even  voice.  The  crowd  of  ragged, 
armed  men  scattered  about  the  clearing  were 
respectfully  silent.  Reassured,  the  pair  of  bronze 
humming-birds  had  come  back  to  hover  over  the 
red  flowers  of  the  trumpet  vine. 

Then  came  the  recapitulation  of  the  crime 
itself,  and  Steve's  voice  rose  into  angry  vehe 
mence.  "  But  what  does  this  yer  Macon  County 
do  on  his  return  ?  Boys,  he  was  guilty  of  the 
most  bloodiest  treachery  ever  told  of  in  these 
mountains.  He  came  back  to  the  clearin' ;  and 
from  what  we  know  of  Hamilton,  we  may  guess 
that  he  was  welcomed  with  outstretched  hand. 
Hamilton  would  mention  how  he  had  saved  the 
still  and  the  rest  of  the  rig  —  he  wasn't  a  fellow 
given  to  boastin',  you'll  remember  —  and  then 


136  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

he'd  suggest  that  the  sooner  the  pair  of  them 
pegged  out  a  new  claim,  the  more  chance  they'd 
have  of  continuing  business.  But  d'ye  think 
Macon  County'd  bear  a  hand  to  set  the  rig  on 
the  waggon  ?  Not  he.  He  said  he'd  weakened 
on  moonlighting ;  had  got  religion  or  something  ; 
and  told  Hamilton  that  as  a  murderer  he  ought 
to  go  and  give  himself  up  to  the  sheriff  right 
away.  Now,  boys,  you'll  all  bear  me  out,  that 
to  say  such  a  thing  to  a  gentleman  of  Hamilton's 
opinions  was  tantamount  to  asking  him  to  draw 
on  you  ;  and  I  guess  Macon  County  wasn't  much 
disappointed  when  Hamilton  did  it.  Macon 
County  here  is  a  fair  tough,  but  Hamilton,  when 
he  got  roused,  was  a  holy  terror ;  and  I  allow  the 
way  they  fit  must  have  been  a  caution  to  wild 
cats." 

"I'd  'a'  given  twenty-five  dollars  to  seen  it," 
murmured  the  lean  man  on  the  snake-fence. 

"  But  this  yer  fight  went  on  queerly.  Neither 
was  knifed,  nor  gouged,  nor  lead-poisoned  ;  neither 
was  much  the  worse  'cept  in  losing  scraps  of  fur 
and  hide  and  so  on  ;  and  Macon  County  finished 
out  top-side  almost  as  sound  as  you  see  him  here 
to-day.  '  But,'  says  you,  '  there's  nothing  wrong 
in  two  gentlemen  havin'  a  pleasant  set-to  of  this 
kind  over  an  argument,  so  where's  the  harm 
done  ?  '  Wait  a  minute,  boys.  What  does  this 
yer  Macon  County  do  next  ?  Havin'  bunched 
the  sense  out  of  Hamilton  by  thumping  his  head 
with  a  rock,  he  next  proceeds  to  rope  him  up, 


SHOT  137 

hands  and  heels,  and  take  him  to  Ashville  in  his 
own  waggon.  And  that's  where  Block  Hamilton 
is  this  day,  in  Ashville  Calaboose ;  and  with  the 
evidence  they've  got  against  him,  he'll  be  electro 
cuted  as  sure  as  we  can't  pay  for  law  enough  to 
save  his  life.  Of  course  there  must  have  been 
an  almighty  pile  of  dollars  handed  across  to  Macon 
County  over  this  job " 

"  Liar  !  "  thundered  the  prisoner,  his  olive  face 
flushing  pink.  « Fellers,"  he  continued,  appeal 
ing  to  the  audience  with  outstretched  hands, 
"you've  known  me  for  a  white  man  all  these 
years,  and  you'll  not  think  so  mean  of  me  as 
that.  You'll  not  believe  that  I  gave  up  Block 
Hamilton  for  all  the  greenbacks  betwixt  here 

and "  His  remaining  words  were  drowned. 

The  audience  had  risen  up  as  one  man  in  noisy 
clamour  to  protest  against  the  interruption.  The 
judge  on  the  piazza  held  Macon  County's  breast 
covered  with  a  steady  rifle  muzzle. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  Old  Man  Davidson,  making 
his  voice  with  difficulty  heard  above  the  uproar, 
"  order  in  court.  Order,  I  say !  Order !  By 
gum,"  he  went  on  to  three  or  four  ardent  spirits 
who  still  persisted  in  having  their  say,  "  if  any 
man  of  you  doesn't  drop  his  voice  to  a  coon's 
whisper,  I'll  lay  for  him  myself.  Macon  County, 
speak  in  your  turn,  and  go  slow  on  language,  or 
you  shan't  be  heard  at  all." 

The  prisoner  had  regained  his  cool  indiffer 
ence.  "  I've  entered  my  protest,  Old  Man,"  he 


138  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

remarked ;  "  I  guess  I  shan't  want  to  chip  in 
again." 

"  We'll  waive  this  question,"  said  the  judge, 
"as  I  don't  see  that  it  matters  much,  and  I'm 
not  here  to  create  any  ill-will.  There's  counts 
enough  without  it.  Macon  County's  clearly  con 
victed  of  the  murder  of  Hamilton  —  he  of  course 
using  another  man's  fingers  to  do  the  actual  trick 
—  and  besides,  he's  guilty  of  a  much  wickeder 
crime.  He's  not  stood  by  his  pard ;  he's  done 
the  rank  opposite.  And  in  rounding  on  Hamil 
ton,  he  rounds  on  us.  The  lesson  Hamilton 
taught  'em  with  that  repeating  shot-gun  is  all 
chucked  away  ;  no  sheriff's  posse  can  ever  respect 
us  after  this.  This  is  what  I  call  Macon  County's 
biggest  crime,  and  you'll  all  understand  me, 
though  I  can't  give  it  a  fancy  lawyer's  name." 

"  Seems  to  me,"  remarked  Davidson,  thought 
fully,  "it  foots  up  to  a  kinder  high-treason,  Steve." 

"  Plum  centre,"  said  the  judge,  with  a  nod  of 
approval.  "  Murder  and  high-treason ;  and  if 
that  doesn't  entitle  a  man  to  a  rope  and  a  tree, 
damn  me  if  I  know  what  does." 

The  court  hummed  acquiescence,  and  Macon 
County  borrowed  another  chew  of  tobacco. 

"  But  before  we  go  any  further,"  continued  the 
judge,  "  I'd  like  to  ask  the  prisoner  what  it  was 
that  made  him  hitch  on  to  this  job.  Say,  is  it 
true  that  you  got  religion  ?  " 

Macon  County  expectorated  in  contempt. 
"You  bet  not,  Steve." 


SHOT  139 

"I'm  glad  of  that.  But  out  with  it.  What 
was  the  cause  ?  Give  it  a  name." 

"  You  tire  me.  What  does  it  matter  ?  But  if 
you  do  hanker  after  knowing,  why  —  oh,  I  took 
a  sudden  fancy  for  the  laws  of  the  United  States, 
and  thought  it  a  pity  they  should  be  trod  on. 
That's  it,  Steve ;  note  that  down.  I  ran  in  Block 
Hamilton  because  I'm  a  law-abiding  citizen  and 
love  the  interests  of  Justice  with  a  big  J." 

The  sarcasm  was  so  outrageous  that  the 
humour  of  it  overdid  all  efforts  to  keep  grave. 
A  ripple  of  laughter  ran  round  the  audience. 

"  Of  course,"  said  the  judge,  grimly,  "  if  you 
don't  care  to  let  on  your  real  reason,  Macon 
County,  you  may  keep  it  t'other  side  of  yoor 
teeth.  You've  had  your  chance  of  palaver,  and 
now  I  guess  you  may  as  well  swing  without 
further  waiting.  Jim,  bring  out  Poppa's  new 
well-rope." 

n 

"Hold  on!" 

The  shout  came  down  the  rough  horse-trail 
which  led  into  the  clearing,  and  the  scattered 
group  of  men  instinctively  slid  hands  on  to  their 
weapons.  But  the  next  moment  the  ready 
fingers  were  drawn  away,  and  some  of  the  men 
smiled.  The  new  comer  was  a  girl  of  twenty, 
unattended.  She  was  mounted  on  a  rough, 
long-tailed  colt  with  a  sack  by  way  of  saddle. 
She  came  into  the  clearing  at  a  canter,  a  goodly 


140  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

expanse  of  bare  brown  ankle  showing  beneath 
her  skirts.  She  was  bare-headed,  ragged,  un 
kempt.  Like  themselves,  she  was  a  tarheeler  of 
the  mountains. 

« Now,  Liza,"  said  the  judge,  "what  do  you 
want  ?  I  guess  you'd  better  git.  There'll  be  a 
man  hanged  here  in  less'n  three  minutes." 

"  It's  about  him  I  corned,"  said  the  girl,  slip 
ping  to  the  ground  and  hitching  the  colt's  bridle 
to  the  down-hanging  branch  of  a  white  oak. 

"  You  can't  do  no  good  for  Macon  County  now," 
remarked  the  lean  man  on  the  snake-fence. 

"  No,  Liza,"  said  the  prisoner,  "  you're  only 
interrupting  the  ceremony.  I'd  rather  you  didn't 
pi  each  the  funeral  sermon  if  it's  all  the  same  to 
you.  Just  quit,  there's  a  good  girl,  without  talk. 
I  guess  it's  the  last  thing  I'll  have  to  ask  you." 

The  girl  advanced  stolidly  to  the  middle  of  the 
open  with  set,  white  face.  The  chewing-stick  at 
the  corner  of  her  mouth  dropped  to  the  ground, 
bitten  off  close  by  her  clenched  teeth.  She 
studiously  avoided  the  prisoner's  glance  ;  she  took 
no  apparent  heed  of  his  words ;  she  kept  her 
great  black  eyes  riveted  on  the  judge. 

"  Steve,  say  now,  was  any  evidence  heard  that 
'ud  kinder  help  Macon  County  ?  " 

"  None  was  wanted." 

"  Answer  me.     Was  any  heard  ?  " 

«  No." 

"Then,"  said  the  girl,  "you've  got  to  just  let 
this  hanging  wait,  and  listen  to  mine,  right  now. 


SHOT  141 

Jim,  what's  that  you've  got  ?  Yer  Poppa's  new 
well-rope  ?  Then  just  you  tote  it  back  into  the 
house.  I  reckon  it  may  not  be  wanted." 

She  swept  the  assembly  with  her  glance. 
«  Now,  boys,  you  needn't  think  I'm  here  to  beg 
Macon  County's  life  just  because  I'm  fond  of 
him.  I'm  not.  He  never  had  no  spare  molasses 
to  heave  over  me.  We  uster  meet  'most  once  a 
week,  but  he'd  never  nothing  more  to  say  than 
'  Howdy,  Liza :  clear  out  and  don't  come  pawin' 
round  me.'  No,  Macon  County  kep'  all  his 
likings  for  another  woman,  and  that  was  Block 
Hamilton's  wife.  They  was  raised  together  in 
these  mountains,  and  was  sweethearts  till  she 
got  her  fancy  for  Block  and  married  him  in 
church.  Afterwards  when  Macon  County  came 
round  to  chip  in  at  the  moonlighting,  there  was 
nothing  wrong  between  her  and  Macon.  I'll  take 
my  oath  to  that.  I'd  not  be  standing  here  if  he 
had  ever  done  any  wrong  thing  by  that  woman. 
Why  he  liked  her  I  can't  tell  —  a  mean  slip  of  a 
split-rail,  with  her  mud-coloured  face  and  her 
wispy  hair.  But  he  did,  and  many's  the  time  he 
stood  between  her  and  Block's  fist." 

"  Oh,  Liza  !  "  the  prisoner  broke  in  ;  «  Liza, 
ye  fool,  dry  up.  Why  in  thunder  can't  you  let 
that  woman  alone  ?  " 

The  girl  went  on  without  seeming  to  notice 
the  interruption.  "  You  know,  boys,  what  kind 
of  a  brute  Block  Hamilton  was ;  but  yer  none  of 
ye  can  half  understand  what  a  hell  he  made  of 


142  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

that  woman's  life.  Macon  County  knew,  though, 
and  was  for  ever  trying  to  make  her  run  with 
him.  The  fool,  she'd  never  go.  At  last  after 
all  these  years  she  went  —  by  herself.  Macon 
follered  and  found  her;  wanted  to  chip  in  and 
be  her  man  ;  but  she'd  have  none  of  him.  '  I'm 
a  lawful  married  wife  and  I'll  not  shame  myself,' 
says  she.  <  Then  I'll  make  ye  a  bouncing 
widow,'  says  Macon  County.  At  that  she  gets 
on  her  knees  and  prays  him,  and  prays  till  he'd 
promised  not  to  take  Block's  life  with  his  own 
fingers  in  any  fashion.  She  made  him  swear  to 
this ;  she  told  me  all  about  it  with  her  own  silly 
trem'ling  lips ;  and  like  a  fool  he  swored.  But 
he  was  a  white  man,  was  Macon  County ;  and  he 
saw  what  was  best  for  her,  and  he  did  it,  though 
he  knew  it  would  bring  him  mortal  trouble.  He 
knew  that  woman  would  never  have  an  unweary 
hour  so  long  as  Block  was  above  the  ground  ;  so 
he  set  about  getting  Block  planted  in  the  only 
way  he  could  without  breaking  his  vow.  Boys, 
I  guess  Macon  County's  the  whitest  man  in  the 
Carolinas  this  minute." 

She  stopped,  with  her  small  breasts  heaving, 
and  the  colour  coming  and  going  from  her  thin 
face  in  waves. 

"  Is  that  all  you  have  to  say,  Liza  ?  " 

« I  reckon." 

"  Then  as  this  court  has  heard  your  evidence, 
you  may  as  well  go  whilst  we  decide  upon  it. 
Yer  Poppa'll  take  you." 


SHOT  143 

The  lean  man  from  the  snake-fence  came  up 
and  hooked  his  fingers  into  the  girl's  arm,  leading 
her  towards  where  the  horse-trail  cut  into  the 
trees. 

As  she  was  passing  the  prisoner,  he  reached 
out  his  hands  and  drew  her  to  him. 

"  You  are  a  good  little  soul,  Liza,"  he  began, 
but  there  she  stopped  his  utterance  by  a  shower 
of  mad,  wild  kisses ;  "  a  good  little  soul.  And 
you've  done  all  any  one  could  do.  But  I  wish 
you  hadn't  come.  So  long." 

Father  and  daughter  went  away  down  the 
muddy  trail,  and  the  elders  of  the  court  drew 
their  heads  together  in  earnest  conversation.  A 
turkey  buzzard,  on  patrol  above,  circled  nearer  to 
the  clearing,  and  signalled  to  other  carrion  fowl 
from  the  more  distant  beats  of  the  sky.  After 
a  while  the  men  separated  to  their  places  again, 
and  chewed  stolidly.  The  judge  delivered  the 
reconsidered  sentence. 

"Macon  County,"  said  he,  "Liza  has  told  a 
lot  of  things  which  weigh  a  deal  in  your  favour. 
You  are  just  as  guilty  of  high  treason  against  us 
whisky-millers  as  ever  you  were.  But  as  regards 
Hamilton,  you  aren't  near  so  black  as  you  was 
painted  before.  We  wanted  to  commute  your 
sentence,  and  you  may  thank  Old  Man  Davidson 
for  suggesting  how  it  could  be  done.  You've 
got  to  be  made  an  example  of,  d'ye  see,  or  else 
the  rest  of  us  would  never  know  what  it  was 
to  sleep  safe.  But  you  shan't  be  hanged.  You 


144  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

shall  be  shot,  like  a  gentleman,  and  you  can 
choose  who  you'd  like  to  drop  you." 

The  prisoner's  face  brightened  up.  "  Now," 
said  he,  "  that's  mighty  kind  of  you,  Steve. 
Mighty  kind  and  thoughtful  of  you,  Old  Man, 
and  boys  all.  As  you  give  me  the  choice,  I'll 
pay  Steve  the  compliment  of  being  the  cleanest 
shot  in  this  crowd.  Steve,  I'll  trouble  you." 

The  judge  lifted  his  Marlin  rifle  and  cuddled 
the  stock  with  his  cheek.  The  prisoner  took  a 
pace  forward  to  receive  his  fire.  Encouraged  by 
the  silence,  the  bronze  humming-birds  whirred 
down  again  to  sip  sweets  from  the  red  flowers 
of  the  trumpet  vine. 


IX 

THE  CONSUMPTIVE 

"  THE  grisly  part  of  it  is,"  said  Tennant,  "  that 
if  I  go  away  from  Grand  Canary  here,  I  shall 
forthwith  die.  Whereas  if  I  could  manage  to 
stay  in  the  island,  I  could  hang  on  with  life  for 
another  five  months  and  a  bit,  and  my  esteemed 
cousin  must  certainly  crumple  up  with  his 
Bright's  disease  before  that  time  and  hand  me 
on  the  title  and  the  estates.  You  can  calculate 
out  these  things  to  such  definite  dates.  That's 
the  beauty  of  modern  medical  science  when  it 
begins  to  interest  itself  in  diseases,  even  if  it 
can't  cure  them."  He  broke  off  and  coughed  for 
a  couple  of  minutes,  and  then  gasped,  "Espe 
cially  consumption.  By  Jove  !  isn't  that  greeny- 
blue  on  the  sea  splendid  ?  " 

Addingham,  the  other  man,  shivered.  "  I  say, 
you  are  gruesome,"  he  complained. 

"  What,"  said  Tennant,  with  a  wry  smile,  "  do 
you  grudge  me  a  sight  of  colour  on  the  sea-water 
now  ?  No,  I  know  what  you  mean,  old  man, 
and  I'm  sorry  ;  but  you  must  bear  with  me  a  bit. 
We  consumptives  have  such  a  way  of  talking 
about  our  blessed  health,  and  dreaming  about  it, 
L  146 


146  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

and  counting  up  the  exact  number  of  days  we've 
got  to  live,  and  swapping  views  on  vintages  of 
cod-liver  oil,  that  we  forget  that  all  these  details 
are  a  bit  noisome  to  outsiders." 

"  Oh,  it's  not  that,"  said  Addingham,  rather 
feebly. 

"  Yes,  but  it  is,  and  I'm  going  to  make  things 
worse  by  keeping  on  with  the  same  tale.  Here 
are  the  Americans  on  the  point  of  declaring  war 
with  Spain ;  and  when  they  actually  do,  Las 
Palmas  won't  be  a  safe  place  for  an  Englishman 
to  live  in." 

"  I  suppose  it  won't  be  for  you." 

"  Especially  for  me,  as  you  say.  If  a  man  will 
be  fool  enough  to  interfere  in  the  national  amuse 
ment  of  beating  a  mule  to  death,  he  must  expect 
to  be  locally  unpopular." 

"  You  hit  that  tartana  driver  across  the  face, 
remember,  with  your  stick." 

"  Because  I  was  too  limp  and  feeble  to  do 
more.  My  dear  boy,  I'd  cheerfully  have  cut  him 
to  ribbons  if  I'd  been  equal  to  the  exertion.  You 
see,  I'd  been  looking  on  at  the  process  of  tortur 
ing  that  mule  for  some  time,  and  was  naturally 
feeling  rather  sick  and  very  wrathful.  I  suppose 
from  the  driver's  point  of  view  it's  equally  nat 
ural  that  he  and  his  friends  should  have  done 
their  best  to  knife  me  at  intervals  ever  since." 

Addingham  rubbed  his  chin.  «  It's  awkward," 
he  said  —  "  very.  These  Canaries  are  the  tamest 
of  people  generally,  but  since  this  war  trouble's 


THE  CONSUMPTIVE  147 

been  on  they've  developed  a  fine  patriotism,  and 
grown  very  excited  over  it.  I  don't  suppose 
many  Americans  find  their  way  as  far  out  as 
this,  and  so,  as  an  Englishman  talks  the  same 
language,  they  make  him  do  instead.  In  fact,  to 
tell  the  truth,  I  was  mobbed  near  the  cathedral 
to-day,  and  had  a  howling  escort  of  them  to  see 
me  home  right  out  here  to  the  hotel." 

"  I  wish  the  Yankees  were  at  the  devil  1 "  said 
Tennant,  irritably.  "  Or  rather,  I  wish  they'd 
1  suspend  hostilities '  till  I  get  through  my  five 
and  a  half  months  here  below,  and  then  come 
down  like  the  Assyrians  and  sweep  the  place 
clear." 

"  And  I  wish  you  wouldn't  talk  of  your  hor 
rible  five  and  a  half  months,"  said  Addingham, 
waking  up  to  a  memory  that  it  is  always  a  sound 
man's  duty  to  hearten  the  sick.  "  You  are  look 
ing  a  sight  better  than  you  did  a  week  ago. 
You'll  pull  round  again  all  right  with  a  bit  more 
rest." 

"  My  dear  boy,"  said  Tennant,  "  don't  pit  your 
puny  opinion  against  science.  My  local  pill-mixer 
here  has  done  nothing  but  handle  consumptives 
for  the  past  ten  years.  He  gets  hold  of  his 
patient  on  landing,  sounds  him,  tries  his  wind, 
counts  his  teeth,  puts  the  result  on  paper,  and 
multiplies  by  ten.  Three  days  later  he  takes  a 
second  observation  to  check  the  first,  and  then  he 
tells  your  friends  the  exact  number  of  weeks,  days, 
and  hours  you've  got  to  live.  If  they're  new  to 


148  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

Grand  Canary,  the  friends  bet  he's  wrong,  and 
lose  their  money.  He  tells  you,  of  course,  as  all 
doctors  are  forced  to  by  their  initiation  oath,  or 
whatever  it  is,  that  there's  not  much  the  matter, 
and  you'll  probably  live  for  ever  ;  but  you  can 
worm  the  truth  out  of  servants  for  a  tip ;  and 
that's  the  way  you  get  hold  of  the  expert  opinion 
that  you've  paid  the  doctor  to  give." 

Addingham  was  going  to  speak,  but  the  sick 
man  put  his  thin  brown  bird's  claw  of  a  hand  on 
his  wrist,  and  stopped  him.  «  Just  let  me  have 
my  way,"  he  said,  "without  more  argument. 
You  know  I'm  right,  and  I  know  you  know,  and 
so  let's  chuck  conventionality.  I've  stared  at 
death  too  long,  and  guessed  at  what's  behind  too 
much,  to  have  any  room  for  further  emotions  on 
the  matter.  But  you  can  do  me  a  very  real  ser 
vice  if  you'll  put  me  in  the  way  of  not  being 
robbed  of  my  appointed  span.  I'm  always  very 
sick  at  sea,  and  if  I  go  away  from  here  to  Madeira 
or  any  of  those  places,  I  shall  certainly  shake  my 
self  to  bits  on  the  road,  and  die  before  I  get  there. 
If  I  do  that,  my  venerable  cousin  will  outlive  me, 
and  my  will  may  be  counted  as  waste  paper,  and 
I  shall  die  writhing.  But  if  you  can  think  of  a 
way  to  let  me  dangle  on  to  the  end  of  my  allotted 
tether,  his  Bright's  disease  must  collar  him  for  a 
certainty  within  this  next  week  or  so,  and  then 
.  »  .  well,  I  shall  inherit,  and  can  dispose  of  the 
cash  as  I  please.  But  honestly,  the  only  way  I 
can  think  of  is  by  grabbing  the  fort  on  the  hill 


THE   CONSUMPTIVE  149 

behind  there  from  the  local  army,  and  holding  it 
till  we're  through.  Otherwise  an  enthusiastic 
mob  will  scrag  me  to  a  certainty  the  day  war 
breaks  out." 

"  You've  left  the  money  to  that  girl,  I  suppose  ?  " 

"  Of  course." 

"Even  after  she  wouldn't  marry  you  ?  " 

"  My  dear  boy,  the  boot  was  on  the  other  leg. 
I  wouldn't  marry  her.  I  got  to  know  from  a 
doctor  at  home  that  I  was  lungy,  and  I  wasn't 
going  to  be  brute  enough  to  marry  a  girl  with 
that  hanging  over  me." 

"  So  you  went  and  deliberately " 

The  sick  man  snapped  out  « Shut  up,"  and 
flushed  scarlet.  "  Well,  I  suppose  I'd  better  own 
up,"  he  said  a  minute  later,  "  as  it's  only  to  you. 
But  a  man  has  to  do  something  if  he  wants  to 
break  off  an  engagement  with  a  girl  who's  very 
fond  of  him,  and  I  couldn't  think  of  any  better 
way  than  getting  into  a  mess  with  another  woman 
who  .  .  .  Oh,  you  know  the  whole  dirty  tale. 
I  hadn't  the  brains  to  invent  a  cleverer  way. 
Working  up  that  mean,  paltry,  cold-blooded 
scandal  was  the  only  thing  that  occurred  to  me. 
I'm  a  bit  of  a  thick-head." 

Addingham  stretched  out  and  gripped  his  hand 
rather  shamefacedly  for  a  second,  and  then  turned 
away.  "You're  a  decent  sort,  you  know,"  he  said. 

"  Oh,  drop  that,"  said  Tennant,  fretfully.  "  Use 
your  head  and  get  me  out  of  this  mess.  Can't 
you  remember  that  she's  as  poor  as  a  rat,  and  will 


150  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

have  to  remain  poor,  or  dress  on  the  doles  that 
some  rich  husband  pinches  out  to  her,  unless  you 
manage  to  think  of  a  way  to  make  me  outlive 
that  ancient  wreck  of  a  cousin  of  mine  ?  " 

"  Well,"  said  Addingham,  "  it  seems  to  resolve 
itself  into  this :  War  is  going  to  be  declared 
between  America  and  Spain,  whether  you  like  it 
or  not ;  Spain  knows  that  she  will  be  badly  licked, 
and  Spaniards  are  mad  accordingly ;  the  local 
Spaniard  hates  you  personally,  and  will  find  an 
opportunity  to  scupper  you  as  soon  as  war  starts  ; 
and  so  Las  Palmas  district  ceases  to  be  healthy  for 
you  from  now  on.  You  say  that  it  would  be  fatal 
for  you  to  leave  the  island  just  now  ;  so  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  only  alternative  is  to  go  and  live 
en  perdu  up  amongst  the  hills  of  the  interior." 

"  By  Jove  !  that's  just  the  very  notion.  Only, 
how  am  I  —  alone,  I  mean  —  to " 

"  Oh,  if  I  hadn't  intended  to  come  along  too  and 
nursery-maid  you,"  said  Addingham,  brusquely, 
"  I  should  never  have  suggested  such  a  mad  picnic. 
Well,  as  this  sort  of  idea  seems  to  chime  in  with 
your  notions,  I'll  just  be  off  one-time  (as  those 
West  African  fellows  say)  and  make  some  prepa 
rations.  We  shall  have  to  take  grub  and  clothes 
and  things,  and  a  transport  system's  got  to  be 
arranged  for  by  which  our  retreat  can't  be  traced. 
It  would  never  do  to  let  the  general  public  know 
which  way  we  might  be  found,  or  we'd  have  your 
mule-beating  friend  and  his  cronies  round  with 
their  knives  before  the  week  was  out." 


THE   CONSUMPTIVE  151 

Now,  Addingham  was  a  man  who  knew  Grand 
Canary  thoroughly.  He  had  visited  it  for  the 
first  time  eight  years  before,  and,  as  was  custom 
ary,  the  charm  of  the  island  grew  upon  him,  and 
he  had  returned  to  it  again  at  least  once  every 
year  since.  He  knew  every  peak  and  every  cinder 
slide ;  he  had  explored  every  one  of  the  great 
barrancos ;  he  knew  personally  every  vineyard, 
every  tomato  garden,  and  every  banana  farm  in 
the  circle  of  the  island  ;  and,  finally,  he  probably 
knew  more  about  the  Guanche  caves  than  any 
Englishman  living.  He  had  visited  all  the 
mummy  caves,  the  store  caves,  and  the  living 
caves  of  that  dead  race  which  were  already  known 
to  exist,  and  during  his  ramblings  amongst  the 
lava  cliffs  and  the  dry,  crumbling  hills  he  had 
found  others  whose  existence  he  kept  to  himself, 
lest  vandal  tourists,  and  more  vandal  museum  col 
lectors,  might  desecrate  those  few  remaining  sig 
natures  of  the  past.  He  had  grown  to  have  a 
feeling  akin  to  comradeship  for  those  long-forgot 
ten  dead,  and  on  the  rare  occasions  when  he 
thought  about  the  matter  in  such  an  aspect,  he 
congratulated  himself  that  at  least  he  had  never 
done  anything  to  rip  more  of  the  cloak  from  their 
decent  past  for  the  vulgar  stares  of  the  ten  days' 
tourist. 

Incidentally,  in  wandering  about  the  island, 
Addingham  had  learned  the  Canary  patois  of  Span 
ish,  the  intricacies  of  local  paths  and  transport, 
and  a  list  of  the  needs  for  a  residence  in  the  high- 


152  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

lands  of  the  interior ;  and  so,  on  the  day  after 
the  subject  was  broached  between  them,  he  was 
able  to  get  Tennant  away  from  the  hotel,  and 
through  Las  Palmas,  and  out  past  Monte  and 
Santa  Brigida,  without  his  journey  being  in  any 
way  noticed. 

It  is  forbidden  by  doctor's  law  for  consump 
tives  to  be  exposed  to  the  air  of  evening,  and  so 
that  night  they  stayed  under  a  roof,  and  Ten 
nant  coughed  in  a  tempered  atmosphere ;  but 
next  morning,  when  the  sun  had  made  the  air 
benign,  they  left  their  carriage  and  set  off  again, 
this  time  with  one  pack-mule  and  another  for 
riding,  and  left  the  road  finally  behind  them. 
They  were  none  too  soon  either.  War  had  been 
declared  the  previous  night ;  and  though  Madrid, 
and  even  Spain  itself,  might  be  calm  and  un 
emotional,  the  towns  and  villages  of  Grand 
Canary  were  in  a  seethe  of  patriotic  ferment. 
Even  the  locally-known  Addingham  would  have 
been  in  considerable  personal  danger,  and  as  for 
the  unpopular  Tennant,  with  his  foreign  preju 
dices  against  beating  a  mere  worn-out  mule  to 
death,  his  life  would  not  have  been  worth  ten 
minutes'  purchase. 

The  way  they  traversed  I  also  have  trod  ;  but 
as  I  am  under  pledge  of  secrecy,  it  will  not  be 
described  here.  Indeed,  without  a  map,  it  would 
be  hard  to  direct  a  traveller  so  that  he  might  re- 
find  it.  There  are  so  many  stony  barrancas,  lead 
ing  to  so  many  barren  valleys,  in  the  interior  of 


THE   CONSUMPTIVE  153 

the  isle  of  Grand  Canary  ;  and  each  one  at  times 
has  the  same  semi-tropical  sun  blazing  with  gen 
ial  warmth  overhead,  and  the  same  euphorbia 
bushes  growing  from  the  austere  cinders  under 
foot,  and  the  same  dwelling  caves,  and  store 
caves,  and  mummy  caves  of  those  long-dead 
Guanches  discreetly  screened  behind  ingenious 
rocks. 

They  journeyed  on  and  on,  up  and  down  and 
up,  till  the  weak  sick  man  on  the  jolting  mule 
was  nearly  at  the  end  of  his  meagre  strength, 
game  though  he  might  be  in  uncomplaining  en 
durance  ;  and  then  the  two  beasts  were  hobbled 
in  a  tiny  dell  of  coarse  grasses  (where  moisture 
accumulated  from  the  slope  above),  and  there 
remained  before  the  men  a  climb  too  steep  even 
for  a  Spanish  mule.  The  Guanche  of  those  dead 
old  years  had  his  enemies,  and  so  he  delved  his 
house  at  some  spot  where  he  would  have  full 
advertisement  of  an  enemy's  approach. 

Addingham  clapped  a  sturdy  arm  round  Ten- 
nant's  waist,  and  half-dragged,  half-carried  him 
up  the  inclines ;  and  Tennant,  with  vicious  en 
ergy,  thrust  out  the  last  embers  of  his  strength 
to  help.  "  You're  sweating  like  a  pig,"  he  gasped, 
as  they  grappled  their  way  up  the  rocks,  "  and 
so  am  I.  By  the  Lord,  it's  fine  to  do  a  climb, 
just  once  again." 

"  You  stay  here  and  get  back  your  wind,"  said 
Addingham,  when  at  last  they  scrambled  through 
the  hole  which  made  the  entrance,  and  sprawled 


154  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

on  the  floor  of  the  cave.  "  I'll  go  down  and 
bring  up  the  furniture  and  the  grub  to  fit  out 
this  desirable  residence." 

It  took  him  four  journeys  to  bring  the  contents 
of  the  mule's  pack  up  the  rocks,  and  when  the 
work  was  finished  night  had  fallen,  and  Tennant 
was  sleeping  a  calm  sleep  of  exhaustion.  The 
mountain  air  was  cool  and  sweet  and  fresh,  and 
slightly  tinged  with  salt  from  the  South-East 
Trade ;  a  great  globe  of  moon  hung  above  their 
valley,  lighting  the  lava  cliffs  and  the  harsh 
cinders  in  stern  black  and  white ;  and  behind 
him,  in  the  ramifications  of  the  cave,  Addingham 
fancied  he  could  hear  the  ghosts  of  goatskin-clad 
mummies,  passing  the  news  in  whispers  concern 
ing  these  strange  men  of  non-Guanche  race  who 
had  arrived  out  of  space  to  visit  them. 

"Men  have  been  born  in  these  caves,"  Adding 
ham  mused,  "  and  have  lived  here  all  their  days, 
and  have  died  here,  and  have  been  buried  in  the 
caves  beyond,  where  their  dust  and  parchment 
still  remain ;  and  presently  I  suppose  another 
man  will  die  where  those  others  have  died  before 
him.  For  me  it  will  be  to  look  on,  and  watch 
helplessly  whilst  he  coughs  himself  into  the  next 
world.  We're  friends,  I  know,  and  I  suppose  it's 
my  duty  to  stay  on  and  watch,  and  help,  but 

"  He  broke  off  in  his  definite  musing,  and 

shuddered  at  a  vague  horror  of  thought.  The 
caves  and  the  valley  were  lonely  beyond  words, 
and  the  idea  of  his  isolation,  and  of  the  man  dying 


THE   CONSUMPTIVE  155 

by  inches  close  by,  shook  him  and  unstrung  his 
nerves.  "  I  suppose  it  was  a  foolish  thing  to  do 
after  what  poor  old  Tennant  told  me,  and  after 
what  he's  done  himself,  but  I'm  glad  I  wrote 
that  letter  to  the  girl.  Bah !  what  a  miserable 
coward  a  man  can  be  when  he's  got  a  bad  sick 
ness  to  nurse ! " 

Addingham  woke  with  the  first  of  the  dawn, 
and  saw  that  the  sick  man  was  still  warm  and 
sleeping.  He  lit  a  candle,  and  rambled  away 
into  the  dark  of  the  caves,  returning  presently 
with  a  stone  measure  full  of  grain  and  a  primi 
tive  quern,  also  of  stone.  He  toasted  the  grain, 
pinch  by  pinch,  over  a  spirit  stove,  and  then, 
after  sprinkling  it  with  salt,  ground  it  in  the 
quern.  Then  he  kneaded  it  with  water  into  a 
dough,  and  prepared  to  make  his  breakfast. 

Tennant  woke  and  saw  him.  "  What's  that 
stuff  you've  got  there  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Gofio.  All  the  country  people  in  the  Canaries 
eat  it,  and  for  a  change  I  like  it  myself." 

"  I  didn't  know  you'd  brought  up  any  corn 
with  you  on  the  mule." 

"  I  didn't.  This  was  stored  up  by  the  last 
tenant  of  these  caves  a  thousand  years  ago,  in  a 
stone  rat-proof  chest,  which  I'll  show  you  directly 
if  you  like.  The  original  storer  doesn't  want  it 
now,  and  as  the  stuff's  as  good  to-day  as  it  was 
the  hour  it  was  put  there,  I'm  robbing  him.  I 
didn't  expect  you  were  going  to  wake  yet. 
However,  I'll  set  to  and  make  your  breakfast 


156  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

now.  Have  a  nip  of  cod-liver  oil  just  as  an 
appetiser  ?  " 

"  Hang  the  cod-liver  oil !  Give  me  some  of 
that  gofio  stuff." 

Addingham  looked  doubtful.  "  It's  hardly 
grub  a  man  would  care  for  if  he  feels  a  bit 
chippy." 

"  Respect  an  invalid's  whims,"  said  Tennant, 
sitting  up  and  stretching  out  a  hand.  "  Surren 
der  your  breakfast,  my  dear  boy,  and  make  your 
self  some  more.  I'm  as  hungry  as  a  wolf.  No, 
hang  coffee  too.  If  we're  going  to  play  at  being 
Guanches,  let's  do  the  thing  thoroughly  and 
drink  water.  It  won't  be  typhoidy  up  here." 

He  ate  his  meal  with  appetite.  "  I  don't 
wonder  at  this  gofio  being  the  principal  food 
that's  eaten  in  the  Canaries  without  break  for 
Lord  knows  how  many  thousand  years.  It's 
fine ;  especially  if  you're  hungry.  I  say,  Mr. 
Caterer,  you've  a  small  notion  of  one's  capacity. 
Look  here,  show  me  how,  and  let  me  help  cook 
some  more.  I'm  feeling  frightfully  energetic 
just  now." 

Now,  it  is  no  place  here  to  give  a  diary  of  the 
existence  of  those  two  men,  the  sick  and  the 
sound,  in  those  Guanche  caves  in  the  centre  of 
the  isle  of  Grand  Canary.  They  lived  on  the 
stores  they  had  brought  up ;  on  banana  bunches 
and  other  fruits,  which  Addingham  raided  under 
cover  of  night  from  plantations  on  the  lower 
ground ;  on  occasional  chickens,  which  probably 


THE    CONSUMPTIVE  157 

came  from  the  same  source ;  and  especially  on 
the  hoard  of  grain  stored  up  by  that  forgotten 
savage  in  the  rat-proof  coffer  in  one  of  the  inner 
caves.  Some  days  Tennant  was  worse,  and 
counted  up  with  calm  cynicism  the  inroads 
which  were  being  made  into  his  allotted  five 
months  and  a  half ;  and  some  days  he  was  bet 
ter,  and  talked  of  swindling  the  doctors  and 
upsetting  current  wages.  And  as  time  went  on 
the  percentage  of  the  hopeful  days  increased,  as 
Addingham's  strained  mind  was  quick  to  notice. 

Of  the  Spanish-American  war  and  its  defeats 
and  successes  they  heard  no  word  ;  but  from  one 
sign  and  another  Addingham  learned  that  the 
Canarios  were  still  excited,  and  that  they  must 
continue  to  live  en  Guanche  if  Tennant  was  to  be 
safe  from  the  knife  of  the  injured  tartana,  driver. 
Addingham  had  also  another  thing  which  weighed 
on  his  mind,  and  that  was  the  letter  he  had 
written  on  the  day  of  their  flight  from  Las  Pal- 
mas.  Until  it  could  reach  England,  and  be 
answered  in  person,  he  was  merely  troubled  in 
spirit  and  took  no  other  move  ;  but  when  that  time 
had  elapsed,  he  made  his  nightly  raids  the  excuse 
for  calling  at  a  rendezvous  which  he  had  named 
in  the  letter,  but  every  night  found  it  cold  and 
unvisited. 

The  weeks  grew  on  into  a  month,  the  month 
into  several  months,  and  still  there  was  no  news 
at  the  rendezvous.  Tennant  was  quite  confident 
now  of  outliving  his  cousin  with  the  Bright's 


158  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

disease,  and  at  times  suggested  that  he  would 
"  have  to  be  shot  when  his  date  arrived,  so  as  to 
keep  up  the  doctor's  reputation  for  accuracy."  He 
developed  a  large  interest  in  the  bygone  Guanche 
race  and  their  doings,  and  ate  gofio  made  from 
prehistoric  wheat  with  an  appetite  that  was  fre 
quently  wolfish.  Day  by  day  Addingham  watched 
him  with  wonderment  and  growing  satisfaction. 

But  at  last  there  came  the  event  which  Ad 
dingham  had  now  begun  to  dread.  He  went 
out  one  midnight  as  usual  to  the  rendezvous,  and 
from  that  moment  Tennant  did  not  see  him  at 
the  Guanche  cave  again.  Instead,  there  came 
with  the  first  rays  of  morning  a  woman,  who 
crawled  in  through  the  tiny  en  trance- way  of  the 
cave,  and  threw  herself  upon  him,  and  woke  him 
with  her  kisses. 

He  got  up,  kissed  her  once,  and  then  thrust 
her  from  him.  "  Oh,  go,"  he  said,  "  go.  It's 
hard  enough  to  die  without  having  you  here. 
That  brute  Addingham  must  have  written  to 
you.  I'll  never  forgive  him  for  this." 

"  I  was  travelling  in  India,"  she  said,  "  and  his 
letter  followed  after  me.  That  is  why  I  was  so 
long  in  coming  to  you,  my  dear.  What  a  fool 
I  was  not  to  see  through  your  dear  old  stupid 
ruse  before ! " 

Tennant  gave  a  whimsical  laugh.  "  That 
scandal  with  —  er  —  that  other  woman?  Oh, 
I  chucked  you  and  cared  for  her  just  then.  I'm 
very  changeable." 


THE   CONSUMPTIVE  159 

She  lifted  his  arms  and  tucked  them  round  her 
neck  and  looked  him  in  the  eyes.  "  Are  you  ?  " 
said  she.  "  You  don't  seem  to  have  changed 
your  way  of  looking  at  me." 

"'Man  can't  help  his  unfortunate  personal 
appearance."  He  took  his  arms  resolutely  from 
her  neck,  and  deliberately  moved  away  from 
her  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  cave.  "Mary," 
he  said,  "  I  found  out  I  was  in  a  galloping 
consumption,  and  as  I  knew  you'd  have  some 
silly  notion  that  you  ought  to  stick  to  me,  I 
just  used  my  brilliant  head  to  invent  a  definite 
order  for  you  to  clear  out.  It  was  luck  on 
Mrs.  —  er  —  the  other  woman,  of  course  ;  but 
she  doesn't  deserve  much  consideration  any 
way." 

"  My  darling,"  she  said,  "  I  would  rather  be 
your  widow  than  the  wife  of  any  other  man  in 
all  the  world.  But  I  am  going  to  be  your  wife, 
and  remain  your  wife.  You  are  not  going  to 
die.  Addingham  told  me  you  had  been  very  ill, 
but  he  said  you  were  marvellously  better.  He 
said  it  was  the  mountain  air  or  something,  and 
that  he  was  convinced  that  the  consumption  had 
stopped.  My  sweetheart,  you  shall  not  die. 
Listen  to  me  ;  I  tell  you  you  shall  not.  You 
shall  live  on.  I  must  have  you." 

Some  one  from  outside  the  cave  whistled 
cheerfully,  and  the  noise  came  of  shoes  slipping 
over  rock,  and  the  panting  of  a  man's  breath. 
Presently  the  man  himself  crawled  in  through 


160  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

the  narrow  opening,  and  sat  puffing  and  mop 
ping  his  forehead  on  the  floor. 

"  Hullo,  Doc.,"  said  Tennant,  "  didn't  expect 
a  visit  from  you  this  morning.  Have  the  Amer 
icans  taken  the  island,  and  have  they  tariffed 
you  out  of  your  practice  ? " 

"The  Americans  are  all  right  at  their  own 
fireside,  writing  puffs  of  themselves  in  the  news 
papers,  and  the  island's  simmered  down  into  its 
usual  doze  again.  I  say,  you're  a  pretty  sort  of 
fraud,  making  me  out  a  liar  like  this  !  Here,  let 
me  look  at  you  and  see  how  that  lung's  going 
on." 

The  girl  watched,  holding  her  breath.  The 
doctor  went  through  his  examination  with  care 
ful  system.  "Well,"  she  whispered  when  he  had 
finished,  "  is  it  consumption  ?  " 

"  It's  a  marvel.  He  was  as  clear  a  case  of 
phthisis  as  ever  I  saw  when  he  landed,  and 
between  ourselves  I  didn't  give  him  long  to  live, 
though  of  course  I  didn't  breathe  a  word  of  that 
to  anybody." 

"Yes,  you  did,"  said  Tennant,  with  a  grim 
chuckle ;  "  you  said  five  months  and  eighteen 
days  was  the  exact  length  of  my  tether." 

"  I  said  nothing  of  the  kind :  it  would  have 
been  most  unprofessional.  The  beggars  invented 
it.  But  anyway,  young  man,  your  disease  is 
stopped,  and  you  can  make  the  most  of  that. 
How  it's  been  done,  the  Lord  above  knows  best. 
It  may  be  the  air  up  here,  or  the  water,  or 


THE   CONSUMPTIVE  161 

some  hidden  virtue  in  the  cave,  or  that  diet  of 
mummy-wheat  gofio  which  Addingham  tells  me 
you're  so  keen  on.  I  don't  know  which  it  is. 
I  wish  I  did.  If  I'd  the  ghost  of  a  notion,  I'd 
write  a  letter  about  you  to  the  Lancet,  and  claim 
to  have  found  a  new  consumption  cure,  and 
become  famous." 

"  Then  do  you  warrant  me  sound  ? "  asked 
Tennant,  with  almost  a  tremble  in  his  voice. 

"  You're  marvellously,  yes,  miraculously  better 
than  you  were  when  I  saw  you  last,  but  you'll 
do  with  a  bit  more  coddling  before  you  leave 
the  island,  and  after  that  you  can  go  home,  and 
know  yourself  to  be  as  sound  a  man  as  there  is 
in  England." 

"Am  I  to  go  down  to  Las  Palmas  again, 
then  ?  " 

"  We-11, 1  don't  personally  admire  your  carriage 
entrance  here  —  in  fact,  I'm  not  built  for  these 
sort  of  gymnastics ;  but  as  the  neighbourhood 
seems  to  suit  you  so  finely,  I'd  stay  on  a  bit 
longer  if  I  were  you  and  complete  the  cure.  Of 
course,  you've  lost  your  mate,  I  know.  He  told 
me  just  now  he  daren't  come  back,  because  he 
was  afraid  you'd  shoot  him  on  sight  for  what 
he'd  done." 

"  I  fancy  I'd  let  him  off." 

"  I  think  he  could  be  replaced,"  said  the  girl, 
with  a  blush.  "  The  guide-book  said  there  was 
an  English  chaplain  on  the  island." 

"  Of  course   there   is,"  said   the   doctor,  still 


162  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

mopping  with  his  handkerchief.  « 'Think  we're 
heathens  and  savages  ?  My  dear,  you  shall  come 
home  again  with  me  to-night,  and  to-morrow 
we'll  bring  up  the  padre  and  fix  you  up  nice  and 
tight."  He  nodded  to  Tennant.  "  My  man,  you 
needn't  look  scared.  I  know  what  you  think, 
and  I  know  what's  right.  I'll  take  the  responsi 
bility  for  this,  and  I  don't  make  a  mistake  a 
second  time.  But  there's  one  thing  I  want  to 
impress  upon  you.  When  you  do  set  up  your 
new  mSnage  up  here,  buy  your  bananas  and 
chickens  openly,  and  pay  for  them  in  hard 
pesetas.  They  say  there's  a  chicken  thief  some 
where  in  this  neighbourhood,  and  the  farmers  are 
beginning  to  lay  traps  for  him." 

"  I've  done  with  disreputableness,"  said  Ten 
nant,  gaily.  "  We'll  be  the  most  respectable  pair 
of  cave  dwellers  in  Grand  Canary.  By  the  way, 
Mary,  I'm  a  bit  behindhand  with  news,  but  —  er 
—  are  you  going  to  be  a  countess  to-morrow  ?" 

"  A  countess  ?  I  don't  understand.  Oh,  yes, 
I  see  what  you  mean."  And  she  laughed.  "No, 
the  doctors  made  another  mistake  there,  and  that 
cousin  of  yours  hasn't  got  Bright's  disease  at  all. 
He'll  probably  live  on  for  years,  and  you're  as 
poor  as  a  rat,  dear.  If  you  hadn't  been,"  said 
she,  cocking  her  chin  at  him,  "  I  shouldn't  have 
been  brazen  enough  to  come  here  for  you." 

"  'Don't  believe  you,"  said  Tennant,  cheerfully. 
"  I  say,  old  lady,  what  frauds  these  doctors 
are !  " 


THE  CONSUMPTIVE  163 

"  I  haven't  made  a  mistake  about  you  this 
second  time,  anyway,"  said  the  Las  Palmas 
doctor,  as  he  fanned  himself  with  his  hat.  "I 
can  tell  you  I  look  upon  you  with  remarkable 
pride  and  gratification.  Why,  man,  think  what 
an  advertisement  you'll  be  for  Grand  Canary ! 
In  a  month's  time  you'll  be  having  a  syndicate 
coming  to  the  cave  here,  asking  what  your  terms 
are  for  an  exhibition  as  Strong  Man  in  the 
London  music  halls." 

"All  right,"  said  Tennant ;  "anything,  so  long 
as  you've  brought  me  to  life  again." 

The  girl  linked  her  fingers  over  his  arm,  and 
looked  up  wistfully  into  his  worn  face,  and  mur 
mured,  "  Life !  Isn't  it  wonderful,  wonderful  ?  " 


THE  PLACE   OF  THE   SACRED  BO-TREE 

PLEASE  you  to  mount  the  carpet  and  travel 
backwards  through  a  matter  of  two  thousand 
years.  It  is  our  will  that  you  land  upon  the 
Dagoba  of  Thuparamaya,  the  relic-shrine  built 
by  a  devout  king  in  his  city  of  Anuradhapura  to 
contain  the  collar-bone  of  Buddha. 

Behold  the  city  spread  beneath  you  —  a  great 
place  of  palaces  and  temples,  of  red-brick  houses 
of  the  wealthy  set  amid  fruit  gardens,  of  squares 
bedecked  with  elephants  and  bulls  in  stone,  of 
wide  long  streets  lined  with  the  bazaars,  of 
narrow  alleys  squalid  with  Eastern  garbage  and 
naked  children.  Behold  this  city  —  fifty-two 
miles  around  its  ring,  sixteen  miles  across  from 
gate  to  gate.  Remember  that  mushroom  London 
has  yet  to  crawl  forth  from  the  forests  and 
swamps  which  flank  the  Thames ;  and  that 
amongst  the  hills  where  Edinburgh  is  to  arise,  a 
prowling  savage  hunts  the  beasts  with  a  stone- 
shod  mace.  Realise  that  you  are  gazing  down 
upon  Anuradhapura  of  Ceylon  in  the  height  of 
its  fame,  and  with  the  mists  of  twenty  centuries 
brushed  away. 

164 


THE   PLACE   OF   THE   SACRED   BO-TREE     165 

The  air  is  clear  as  nothingness,  rich  bright  blue 
overhead,  and  the  colours  which  paint  the  city 
come  to  you  vivid  and  undiminished.  You  glance 
over  the  whole  wide  ring  of  the  boundary  walls, 
and  remember  that  within  them  are  penned  three 
millions  of  human  beings.  You  see  them  on  the 
housetops,  in  the  gardens,  in  the  streets,  and  you 
hear  the  hum  of  them  from  the  doorways  and 
through  the  shuttered  windows.  The  streets 
squirm  like  tortured  snakes  amongst  the  houses, 
divorced  as  far  as  may  be  from  any  cramped 
rectangular  plan ;  the  houses  are  built  with  in 
finite  variety  of  form  and  colour ;  the  dust  rises 
in  faint  brown  clouds  from  the  feet  of  the  traffic. 

It  is  a  city  of  processions,  and  every  street  has 
its  cavalcade.  A  lady  of  the  harem  rides  by  in 
her  shuttered  palanquin,  and  the  bearer-coolies 
shout  to  clear  the  crowd.  A  pearl-captain  with 
a  little  leathern  pouch  follows,  surrounded  by  his 
crew  well  armed,  carrying  the  spoils  of  a  year 
to  the  merchant  who  employs  him.  A  religious 
procession  of  a  thousand  pilgrims  and  a  score  of 
ochre-robed  priests  treads  on  their  heels.  Then 
come  more  coolies  with  bales  of  silks  from  India- 
across-the-water,  and  bronze  sword-blades,  and 
wood  for  the  lance-shaft  sellers  in  the  bazaar. 
The  striped  awnings  above  reach  half-way  across 
the  street,  and  under  them  the  hard  red  brick  of 
the  houses  gives  out  the  heat  soaked  in  through 
many  centuries.  But  the  units  of  the  great  city 
never  rest.  They  are  no  worn-out  race  of  Ori- 


166  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

entals.  They  are  a  people  in  their  prime  —  they 
are  full  of  a  huckstering  feverish  energy. 

In  the  main  street  of  the  city,  a  gorgeous 
thoroughfare  of  ten  thousand  houses,  a  little 
storm  arises.  A  naked  thief  has  pilfered  from 
one  of  the  merchant's  stores  displayed  under  a 
cavernous  archway.  A  servant  runs  out  to  seize 
him,  and  the  fellow  struggles.  Blood  is  shed. 
A  guard  of  armed  men  presses  up  through  the 
gathering  crowds  —  clanking,  stalwart,  upright. 
They  seize  the  thief,  words  are  spoken,  and  the 
thief  ceases  to  exist  as  an  entire  man.  Then 
they  take  money  from  the  merchant  and  depart 
to  the  place  from  which  they  came,  leaving  be 
hind  them  a  battered  corpse  in  the  roadway. 
The  gaunt  dogs  are  already  beginning  to  arrive 
from  down  the  alleys,  and  the  carrion  fowl  col 
lect  above  the  housetops.  It  is  an  incident  not 
uncommon.  There  are  three  millions  of  people 
in  the  city,  and  order  must  be  kept. 

A  swarthy,  reckless-looking  fellow  rolls  up  the 
street,  kicks  one  of  the  pariah  dogs  out  of  his  way, 
and  proceeds  to  do  business  with  the  merchant 
who  has  just  been  despoiled.  He  wears  a  purple 
rag  round  his  neck,  battered  armour  on  his  trunk, 
and  a  broad  axe  slung  by  a  thong  to  his  wrist. 
He  has  got  so  thoroughly  used  to  danger  of  every 
conceivable  sort  that  ten  minutes  of  assured 
safety  would  unnerve  him.  He  is  mariner,  ped 
dler,  pirate  —  the  last  always  when  occasion 
serves.  His  home  is  in  the  distant  sea-port  of 


THE   PLACE   OF   THE   SACRED   BO-TREE     167 

Tyre,  in  the  little-known  northern  sea.  He  has 
brought  with  him  a  tiny  cargo  of  dye-stuffs  for 
disposal,  and  habit  makes  him  plant  his  back 
against  the  wall  and  grip  the  axe-handle  as  he 
barters. 

Another  religious  procession  with  densely  filled 
ranks  surges  by  and  blots  the  Tyrian  and  the 
merchant  from  view.  This  one  goes  to  a  temple, 
and  the  yellow-clad  priests  chant,  and  butterflies 
flicker  in  the  gloom  before  the  image  of  the  god. 
Buddha  is  great,  and  his  worshippers  devout. 
Throughout  all  the  days  of  the  year  and  through 
all  the  nights  they  cease  not  in  their  prayers  and 
praises.  The  rest  of  the  city  may  sleep,  but  not 
the  priests.  When  one  tires,  another  takes  his 
place ;  and  when  one  dies,  a  novice  joins  the 
priesthood.  The  man  who  scoffs  at  religion  is  a 
man  yet  to  be  born  long  centuries  hence. 

But  the  people  are  not  without  their  lighter 
moments.  In  the  squares  and  in  the  public 
gardens  are  platforms  on  which  men  and  women 
dance  and  posture,  and  trained  animals  show 
their  tricks,  and  jugglers  make  a  mango  tree 
grow  out  of  a  seed,  or  throw  a  rope  into  the  air 
and  climb  up  it  and  disappear  into  nothingness. 
There  are  feastings  too,  and  races,  fights  with 
the  knuckle-duster  and  tricks  on  the  balanced 
pole ;  and  those  who  come  to  watch,  and  those 
who  stay  to  feast,  pay  in  kind  or  coin  according 
to  what  they  get  and  according  to  their  means. 

There   are   baths,  too,  which    are  places   for 


168  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

luxury  and  rest.  They  are  placed  in  every  ward 
of  the  city  and  are  built  for  every  caste  and  grade. 
There  are  baths  built  of  marble  and  baths  of 
homely  granite.  There  are  private  baths  in  the 
houses  of  the  king's  brothers  of  burnished  gold 
and  ivory. 

And  over  all,  the  soldiery  of  the  king  keep 
guard  and  order. 

The  king  !  Yes,  a  real  king ;  a  monarch  such 
as  has  ceased  to  exist  for  many  a  weary  century, 
and  who  lives  in  a  palace  appropriate  to  his 
state.  You  that  stand  on  the  high  dome  of  the 
Dagoba  of  Thuparamaya,  behold  !  This  royal 
dwelling  is  built  in  a  square,  with  sides  230  feet 
in  length,  and  the  uppermost  storey  is  the  ninth 
above  the  ground.  On  every  floor  there  are  a 
hundred  rooms,  and  in  every  room  four  windows 
filled  in  with  gilded  trellis.  Above  all  is  a  thing 
which  one  believed  to  exist  only  in  the  Arabian 
Nights  Entertainment  —  a  roof  of  polished  brass. 
See  the  winking  splendour  of  it  under  the  blaze 
of  sky,  and  guess  at  a  millionth  of  the  things 
that  have  passed  beneath  its  shelter ! 

There  is  a  procession  of  howdahed  elephants 
coming  up  this  moment  —  huge  fellows  without 
tusks,  who  plod  on  entirely  careless  of  the  crowds 
which  scuttle  from  their  path.  A  glittering 
squadron  of  cavalry  attends  them,  and  the  ban 
ners  tell  that  the  pageant  is  made  to  escort  in  a 
visiting  king  from  his  halting-place  without  the 
city  walls.  The  great  bronze  doors  open,  and  he 


THE   PLACE   OF   THE   SACRED   BO-TREE     169 

passes  into  the  palace,  and  the  doors  clash  behind 
him  as  they  have  closed  on  the  heels  of  mightier 
than  he.  Hiram  of  Tyre  (in  earlier  days)  has 
sent  an  embassy  to  that  palace,  and  with  him  was 
a  hook-nosed  man  who  took  back  word  to  Jeru 
salem  of  "apes  and  peacocks,"  and  excited  a 
new  avarice  in  blas£  Solomon. 

Dynasties  might  change  —  had  changed  —  but 
that  palace  with  its  glitter  of  roof  was  destined 
to  endure  down  eight  centuries,  and  to  house  a 
king  who  was  a  real  king.  It  was  always  the 
king  who  did  everything,  whose  will  was  the 
people's  law.  One  king  built  palaces,  another 
bazaars ;  one  spent  his  life  in  war,  and  another 
in  breeding  peacocks.  King  Prakrama  it  was 
who,  for  the  better  water-supply  of  his  country, 
caused  1470  tanks  to  be  constructed,  which  were 
to  be  known  as  the  "  seas  of  Prakrama "  all 
down  through  the  ages.  But  Oevenipiatissa  the 
King  (of  307  B.C.)  was  the  most  renowned  of  all, 
for  he  it  was  who  set  up  the  cult  of  Buddha,  as 
the  national  worship,  and  who  planted  the  sacred 
Bo-tree  (in  288  B.C.). 

The  tree  was  started  as  a  trivial  budding  slip. 
They  brought  it  to  him  from  far  without  his 
city  of  Anuradhapura,  in  a  great  procession 
which  gathered  pomp  and  numbers  as  it  ad 
vanced.  It  was  a  cutting  from  the  tree  under 
which  Gautama  had  become  Buddha  —  a  thing 
of  indescribable  holiness  —  a  gift  more  precious 
than  all  the  king's  possessions.  He  honoured  it 


170  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

fittingly.  He  built  a  temple  of  red  brick  for  its 
attendant  priests,  and  in  the  walled  courtyard  of 
the  temple,  on  a  triple  platform  of  cunning  archi 
tecture,  they  planted  the  little  switch  of  wood. 
The  tree  grew,  looking  like  a  banyan  with 
branches  which  did  not  root,  and  it  put  forth 
heart-shaped  leaves  with  long,  attenuated  points. 
The  folk  from  India-across-the-water  who  came 
to  do  pilgrimage  there  called  it  Pipal ;  but  the 
men  who  came  in  later  years,  after  the  manner 
of  their  islands,  called  the  tree  a  sacred  fig,  or, 
when  they  wanted  to  be  pedantic,  wrote  it  as 
Ficus  religiosa. 

*  *  *  *  * 

And  now,  you  who  read  this,  step  from  the 
carpet  which  has  held  you  back  fifteen  centuries 
in  the  past,  and  look  at  Anuradhapura  as  it  is  in 
the  current  year  of  grace.  You  will  see  some 
evidences  of  those  old  scenes  still  around  you ; 
and  for  the  rest  you  must  wade  through  the 
"Mahawansa,"  which  is  a  metrical  "Baedeker" 
written  in  the  Pali  tongue. 

The  city  has  fallen  upon  evil  times,  and  the 
decay  of  age  has  gripped  all  her  bones.  The 
king  and  his  three  millions  of  subjects  are  not, 
and  the  fierce-growing  Singhalese  flora  has  in 
vaded  even  the  sanctity  of  the  temples.  The  great 
houses  and  bazaars  are  mouldering  rubbish-heaps. 
The  stone  bulls  and  elephants  peer  from  amid 
scrub  that  is  hung  with  orchids.  The  king's 
palace  itself  shows  only  a  bristling  forest  of  six- 


THE  PLACE  OF   THE   SACRED   BO-TREE     171 

teen  hundred  granite  columns  sprouting  out  from 
a  wilderness  of  rubble.  Of  the  great  brass  roof, 
who  shall  say  into  what  melting-pots  the  plates 
of  that  have  found  a  way  ? 

The  forest  is  the  chief  holder  of  the  city  now. 
Trees  girdle  the  fallen  images,  and  smother  from 
sight  the  domes  of  the  huge  relic-shrines.  Shrubs 
have  levered  down  a  milliard  milliard  bricks ; 
rank  jungle-plants  have  burst  up  the  tooled  stone 
causeways.  But  man  has  never  lost  entire 
touch  with  the  place,  and  to-day  he  is  regaining 
possession.  A  squalid  native  village  has  always 
huddled  amid  the  centre  of  the  ruins,  and  this  is 
now  beginning  to  glow  with  a  newer  life.  The 
agents  of  the  Crown  Colony  of  Ceylon  have  it  in 
hand.  The  great  tank  of  Kalawewa,  which  for 
centuries  had  been  a  ruin,  was  in  1888  repaired 
after  years  of  labour,  and  once  more  Anuradha- 
pura  has  water  flowing  through  her  ducts.  There 
is  a  Government  rest-house,  a  British  magistrate 
to  punish  the  evil-doer,  and  police  to  spread  the 
law  of  the  land.  On  clear  nights  one  can  hear 
the  scream  of  the  locomotive  whistle  from  the 
terminus  at  Matale.  The  age  is  utilitarian. 
Even  dead  Pharaoh  is  hustled  from  his  grave  to 
become  a  spectacle. 

But  one  thing  in  Anuradhapura  has  not  changed 
through  all  the  weariness  of  time,  and  has  not 
bent  to  heathen  conqueror  or  bowed  to  that 
greater  Vandal,  the  civilisation  of  the  West.  The 
temple  of  the  sacred  Bo-tree  still  remains,  an 


172  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

oasis  tilled  by  religion.  The  brick  of  the  court 
yard  walls  maintains  its  blush  ;  the  priests  are 
in  the  same  ochre-coloured  robes ;  the  tree  bears 
leaves  to  a  line  the  same  as  those  it  bore  when 
King  Oevenipiatissa  sat  on  his  throne  of  gold 
and  ivory  and  precious  gems.  The  peacocks  are 
there  too,  as  they  always  have  been,  to  lend 
colour  to  the  place  with  their  living  jewellery. 

Only  once  in  all  its  life  of  over  two  thousand 
years  have  the  newer  gods  frowned  on  the  tree, 
and  that  was  in  the  October  of  1887.  Then  it 
was  that  they  sent  a  great  storm  and  splintered 
off  the  main  stem  and  threw  it  to  the  litter  of 
the  courtyard.  The  yellow-clothed  priests  with 
sorrow  took  the  wood  and  cremated  it  with  vast 
and  mournful  ceremony,  and  the  cult  of  the  sur 
viving  branches  continues. 

The  tree  now  is  hoary  with  years,  and  rests 
feebly  on  its  crutched  sticks,  and  is  bound  about 
the  middle  with  many  a  girdle ;  but  its  heart- 
shaped  leaves  are  as  fresh  as  those  it  bore  in  that 
far  mysterious  past,  and  never  for  an  instant  do 
they  rest.  Unceasingly  they  circle  and  dance  and 
quiver  before  the  little  monkeys  on  the  wall,  and 
the  yellow-robed  priests  of  the  temple,  and  the 
tired  pilgrims  who  do  obeisance  in  the  courtyard. 
They  are  never  cut,  never  shaken  ;  but  when  they 
fall  to  the  ground,  then  the  devout  take  them  as 
holy  relics,  and  give  what  is  due  to  the  priests  of 
the  temple. 

This  is  the  year  of  our  Lord  1895,  and   the 


THE   PLACE   OF   THE   SACRED   BO-TREE     173 

Buddhist  pilgrims  have  done  reverence  to  every 
leaf  which  has  fallen  from  that  tree  since  288 
years  before  His  birth.  We  know  that  the 
heathen  is  an  erring  man  who  bows  down  to 
wood  and  stone,  but  we  do  not  always  realise 
that  his  constancy  is  a  thing  we  cannot  match. 

Two  thousand  one  hundred  and  eighty-three 
years  —  one  tree  —  one  religion  :  think  the 
matter  out.  It  may  bring  understanding  to 
other  things  which  lie  within  that  smiling,  hag 
gard,  mysterious  East. 


XI 
THE  MUMMY  OF  THOMPSON-PRATT 

GARGKAVE  was  a  fellow  of  Clare  with  rooms 
in  College,  who  lectured  twice  a  week  on  Con 
structive  Egyptology,  as  a  rule  to  empty  benches. 
He  was  one  of  the  most  profound  Egyptologists 
of  the  day,  and  had  a  clever  knack  of  keeping  all 
interesting  items  to  himself,  and  discoursing  the 
dry  bran  of  theory  only.  At  the  beginning  of 
each  October  term  he  had  quite  a  crowd  to  hear 
him.  The  undergraduate  who  thought  he  ought 
to  do  something  up  at  Cambridge  on  which  to 
report  progress  to  parent  or  guardian,  would  run 
his  eye  down  the  list,  and  pitch  upon  Construc 
tive  Egyptology  as  a  subject  likely  to  be  of  the 
light  fiction  order,  and  one  which  would  probably 
offer  him  pleasant  entertainment.  But  one  hear 
ing  of  Gargrave  soon  knocked  this  notion  on  the 
head,  and  that  undergraduate  in  future  wasted 
no  more  time  drawing  caricatures  on  lecture- 
room  foolscap  with  spluttering  lecture-room 
quills,  whilst  Gargrave  prosed  about  the  true 
significance  of  an  accidental  scratch  on  a  scara- 
beus,  but  spent  his  mornings  in  bed,  or  on  the 
river,  or  merely  playing  poker,  as  Nature  had 
originally  intended.  And  the  lecture-room 

174 


THE  MUMMY  OF   THOMPSON-PKATT        175 

benches  remained  vacant  till  the  next  batch 
of  green  freshmen  arrived  in  the  succeeding 
October. 

This  result  was  pointed  out  clearly  to  Gargrave 
by  candid  friends.  But  this  made  no  difference 
in  the  discourses.  He  held  to  the  solid  Cam 
bridge  theory  that  'Varsity  lectures  were  not 
intended  to  amuse,  or  teach  anything  that  was 
useful ;  but  merely  to  educate ;  which  was  a 
very  different  matter.  "  D'ye  think  I'm  a  music 
hall  ?  "  Gargrave  would  say.  "  Or  is  it  a  damned 
board-school  you  take  me  for  ?  "  The  rest  of  the 
Clare  fellows  wished  Gargrave  would  take  orders, 
and  then  they  could  give  him  a  college  living 
and  get  rid  of  him.  But  Gargrave  refused  to  do 
this  thing,  on  the  plea  of  religious  scruples  ;  and 
rumour  got  about  in  Cambridge  that  his  creed 
was  that  of  the  ancient  gods  of  Egypt. 

Of  the  same  college,  and  the  bye-term  senior 
to  Gargrave,  was  Thompson-Pratt,  Demonstrator 
in  Chemistry  at  the  Cavendish  laboratories.  He 
was  not  a  Fellow  of  Clare,  or  even  likely  to  be 
made  one.  Why  he  had  ever  got  a  first  class  in 
the  National  Science  tripos  was  an  abstruse  mys 
tery.  He  was  not  a  man  of  brilliant  intellect, 
nor  did  he,  in  his  undergraduate  days,  ever  resort 
to  excessive  reading.  When  he  graduated  at  the 
end  of  his  third  year,  he  tried  school-mastering 
for  a  twelve-month,  disliked  it,  and  stumbled 
into  this  demonstratorship  in  chemistry  which 
was  then  vacant.  Envious  people  said  he  got  it 


176  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

by  sheer  favouritism.  He  himself  suggested  that 
it  was  a  just  reward  for  his  powers  of  blarney. 

Thompson-Pratt  always  had  matches  and 
strong  tobacco  ready  in  his  pocket  for  any  one 
who  needed  them,  and  in  the  waiting  spaces  dur 
ing  a  lingering  experiment  he  could  re-spin  a 
yarn  from  back  numbers  of  the  Pink  'Un  as 
deftly  as  one  could  wish  to  hear  it.  He  was  a 
distinctly  popular  man  in  a  small  way,  and  got 
asked  out  more  than  was  good  for  his  health. 

Gargrave  dined  daily  at  the  high  table  in  hall, 
drank  two  glasses  of  port  and  ate  four  walnuts 
in  the  Combination  Room  afterwards,  and  then 
returned  to  his  own  rooms  on  the  Don's  staircase 
and  worked  till  2  A.M.  Thompson-Pratt  kept 
in  Green  Street,  dined  at  the  Hoop,  and  spent 
his  evenings  at  threepenny-rise  poker  with  four 
other  Bachelors  who  entertained  one  another  in 
turn  and  sat  up  till  daylight.  He  knew  Gargrave 
and  disliked  him  candidly,  and  Gargrave  despised 
Thompson-Pratt.  So  here  are  the  men,  and 
these  are  the  relations  between  them. 

Gargrave  brought  home  the  mummy  himself 
by  long  sea  from  Alexandria  in  a  P.  &  0.  boat, 
and  as  I  happened  to  be  on  board,  and  was  a 
man  of  his  own  year  and  college,  he  looked 
upon  me  as  his  especial  prey  and  bored  me 
accordingly.  I  told  him  at  the  outset  that 
except  as  fuel  I  was  not  interested  in  mummies 
in  any  degree  whatever.  But  that  did  not 
choke  him  off  in  the  least ;  and  he  poured  con- 


THE  MUMMY  OF  THOMPSON-PKATT        177 

versational  mummy-dust  into  my  ears  all  down 
the  Mediterranean,  and  through  the  Straits,  and 
across  the  Bay,  and  down  Channel  till  we 
fetched  up  in  Southampton.  I  gave  him  the 
slip  there  in  the  Custom-House,  and  hoped  he'd 
get  run  over  by  a  cab  in  the  street. 

Two  years  later  I  went  up  to  Cambridge  to 
take  my  M.A.  degree.  I  was  paying  my  fees  in 
the  butteries,  when  in  came  Gargrave  and 
passed  the  time  of  day.  "  Look  here,"  he  said, 
"  I  wish  you'd  come  round  to  my  rooms  after 
you've  finished  your  business  in  the  Senate 
House.  I've  got  an  experiment  I  want  you  to 
be  in  at." 

"  What  sort  of  experiment  ?  "  I  asked.  "  Not 
mummies  ?  " 

"  It  has  to  do  with  a  mummy.  The  one  you 
saw  me  bring  home  from  Egypt." 

"  No,  thanks,  old  man,"  I  said.  "  I  hate  the 
whole  breed  of  them.  Besides,  I've  another 
engagement." 

He  pawed  my  coat  sleeve.  "  I  know  you  hate 
them.  That's  just  the  very  reason  I  want  you. 
You'll  be  an  unprejudiced  witness.  Now  do 
stay.  You  needn't  put  up  at  the  Bull.  I've 
got  a  spare  bed,  and  I'll  tell  my  gyp  to  make 
it  up  for  you.  I  believe  I've  got  hold  of  the 
finest  thing  that  was  ever  hit  upon  since  Egyp 
tology  started,  and  I  want  you  to  be  there  to 
confirm  my  notes." 

"  But  I  should    be  no  good  at    taking   down 


178  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

notes.  I'm  merely  a  novelist.  I  haven't  climbed 
as  far  as  being  a  reporter  yet.  Shorthand  is  clean 
beyond  me." 

"  I've  got  a  phonograph  to  take  it  all  down," 
he  said.  «  Writing  would  be  no  use  even  though 
you  knew  the  language,  which  you  don't.  The 
accent  we  use  now  is  probably  quite  wrong. 
You  wouldn't  be  able  to  catch  hold  of  one  word 
in  ten." 

"  I  wish  you  wouldn't  talk  hieroglyphics." 

"  I  can't  explain  it  more  to  you  here,"  he  said. 
"  You  must  come  and  see  for  yourself,  and  I  can 
promise  you  the  entertainment  will  be  exciting 
enough  and  suit  even  your  lively  tastes.  If  you 
stay  away,  you'll  regret  it  all  the  rest  of  your 
life." 

"  Why  ?  " 

He  was  getting  exasperated.  "  You'll  see  why, 
you  fool,  when  my  book  comes  out  in  a  year's 
time." 

It  was  really  cheering  to  see  Gargrave  human 
enough  to  lose  his  temper.  "  All  right,"  I  said, 
"  I'll  come  after  I've  been  through  the  mill  in 
the  Senate  House  and  can  smoke  in  Cambridge 
streets  at  night  without  danger  of  being  proc- 
torised  and  fined  the  gentle  six-and-eight.  So- 
long,"  I  said,  and  turned  into  the  butteries  to 
talk  over  past  undergraduate  high-jinks  with 
my  old  gyp. 

Now  if  anything  better  had  turned  up,  it  is 
more  than  possible  that  I  should  have  forgotten 


THE  MUMMY  OF   THOMPSON-PRATT        179 

my  engagement  with  Gargrave  and  gone  else 
where.  I  had  had  a  very  excellent  three  years 
in  Cambridge  some  time  before,  as  an  irrespon 
sible  undergraduate,  and  was  by  no  means  averse 
to  having  a  short  retaste  of  the  old  lively  scenes. 
But  I  could  find  no  one  that  I  knew  who  seemed 
at  all  interesting ;  the  current  undergraduates, 
looked  at  from  the  light  of  after  years,  seemed 
mere  schoolboys ;  and  in  fact  the  larger  part 
of  my  acquaintance  seemed  to  consist  of  gyps, 
bedmakers,  or  tradesmen's  assistants ;  and  so 
faute  de  mieux,  after  I  had  been  raised  to  the 
sublime  degree  of  Magister  Artium,  I  restored 
my  borrowed  hood,  cap,  gown,  and  bands  to 
the  tailor's,  and  strolled  across  to  Gargrave's 
staircase. 

I  went  in  without  knocking,  more  Cantab.  He 
was  fitting  a  new  wax  cylinder  to  a  phonograph, 
and  as  he  leaned  over  the  machine  and  I  saw  the 
curves  of  his  head,  I  thought  of  what  a  thousand 
pities  it  was  that  a  man  with  such  a  magnificent 
brain  should  fritter  it  on  such  a  useless  life-work. 
The  mummy  case  stood  open  against  one  of  the 
walls,  the  mummy  in  it  stripped  of  its  swathings. 
The  air  was  full  of  the  sickly  flavour  of  spices. 
I  pulled  out  a  cigar  and  lit  it. 

"  Don't  smoke,"  said  Gargrave.  "  I  must  have 
the  air  here  quite  clear." 

"  Then  open  the  window,"  I  said.  "  The  place 
stinks." 

"You'll  be  used   to  the  atmosphere  directly. 


180  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

There's  the  mummy.  What  do  you  think  of 
him  ?  " 

"  Toughish  biltong.  Newer  meat  for  me. 
He's  well  tattooed  about  the  chest  and  arms, 
though." 

"  Those  are  not  tattoo  marks.  Look  closer. 
They  are  a  pattern  in  the  grain  of  the  epidermis." 

"  So  they  are.  Mr.  Menen-Ra  —  isn't  that  his 
name  ?  —  is  a  curious  beast." 

"  Curious  !  He's  unique.  Or  at  least  he  and 
his  descendants  are." 

"  Oh,  those  markings  would  not  pass  on  to  his 
son." 

"  So  you  say.     But  it  appears  they  did." 

"  Have  you  got  another  mummy  here,  then  ?  " 

"  I've  got  more  than  that.  I've  got  one  of  his 
living  descendants,  he's  due  in  this  room  almost 
directly." 

«  Humbug." 

"  You  shall  judge  for  yourself.  You  know  the 
very  man.  He's  Thompson-Pratt,  of  the  bye- 
term  above  us." 

"  What,  the  demonstrator  in  the  labs  ?  " 

"  That  same  man.  He's  the  lineal  descendant 
of  this  mummy,  as  I've  been  at  infinite  pains  to 
find  out." 

"  And  has  he  got  the  strawberry  mark,  or 
whatever  you  call  it  ?  " 

"  He  has,  line  for  line,  pustule  for  pustule." 

"  Did  he  see  your  mummy  and  come  up  and 
claim  it  as  a  cousin  ?  " 


THE  MUMMY  OF   THOMPSON-PRATT        181 

"  He  did  not.  I  discovered  his  markings  for 
myself  long  before  I  saw  the  mummy.  It  was 
the  term  after  you  had  gone  down.  He'd  been 
on  this  staircase  here  to  see  the  Dean,  who  was 
out.  He  slipped  in  coming  down,  and  took  a 
header,  and  got  all  the  sense  knocked  out  of  him. 
I  heard  the  noise.  I  was  the  only  man  in.  So 
I  went  and  picked  him  up,  and  brought  him  in 
here.  He  lay  so  still  I  thought  he  was  dead,  so 
I  ripped  open  his  shirt  to  see  if  I  could  feel  his 
heart  beating ;  and  it  was  then  that  incidentally 
I  came  across  the  markings.  I  got  him  back  to 
his  senses  again  soon  afterwards,  and  whilst  he 
was  lying  on  my  sofa  getting  his  nerves  straight 
again,  I  told  him  what  I  had  seen  and  asked  him 
how  they  came  there. 

"  He  was  furiously  angry  and  said  I'd  taken  a 
great  liberty. 

"'My  good  man,'  I  said,  <I  didn't  look  for 
the  things.  I  merely  stumbled  across  them  by 
accident.' 

" { They  are  the  curse  of  my  life,'  said  he.  <  I 
love  swimming,  and  yet  I  daren't  bathe  in  pub 
lic.  People  hoot  at  me  if  I  do.  Look,'  he  said, 
and  pulled  back  his  shirt,  and  showed  me  his 
chest  and  the  tops  of  his  arms.  '  I'm  marked 
like  the  spotted  man  at  the  fair.  I'm  a  blooming 
spectacle.  My  father's  the  same  way,  and  so's 
the  grand  gov'nor,  and  so  was  his  father  before 
him.  I  suppose  it's  a  sort  of  family  curse,  or 
some  such  rot  as  that,  only  we're  too  ashamed  of 


182  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

the  whole  thing  to  have  any  yarn  about  it.'  And 
then  he  pinned  me  not  to  tell  about  him,  and 
then  he  went.  I  didn't  worry  my  head  more 
about  the  matter.  Biology's  outside  my  line, 
and  Thompson-Pratt  was  not  a  man  I  had  any 
special  interest  in  at  that  period. 

"  Well,  then,  of  course  I  went  on  with  my  work, 
and  in  time  went  to  Egypt  and  got  this  mummy 
of  Menen-Ra.  I  brought  it  home  in  its  swath- 
ings,  and  didn't  open  it  out  till  I  got  here.  I'd 
procured  it,  as  you  know,  for  a  certain  purpose 
connected  with  one  of  my  theories.  But  when 
I'd  had  the  first  glance  at  those  markings  on  its 
skin,  I  let  my  original  ideas  go  to  the  winds  for 
the  time  being.  So  far  as  I  could  remember, 
they  were  the  exact  repetition  of  those  carried 
by  Thompson-Pratt. 

"  Here  was  a  strange  thing  !  I  sat  and  thought 
of  it  hour  after  hour,  and  day  after  day.  I  tell 
you  theories  fairly  bubbled  out  of  me.  At  last  I 
made  up  my  mind  what  was  to  be  done.  But 
before  I  went  further,  I  had  got  to  know  if  the 
markings  were  exactly  the  same  as  Thompson- 
Pratt's.  He  made  a  big  difficulty  about  it,  and 
for  a  man  who  pretends  to  be  scientific,  I  must 
say  he  was  absurdly  prejudiced.  But  he  gave  in 
at  last,  and  let  me  take  a  photograph.  I  tell 
you  it  was  simply  marvellous  :  line  for  line,  pus 
tule  for  pustule,  his  markings  were  the  same  as 
the  mummy's. 

"Well,  that  was  strong  evidence,  you'll  say, 


THE  MUMMY   OF   THOMPSON-PRATT        183 

but  I  wanted  to  go  deeper.  I've  put  an  enor 
mous  amount  of  work  into  it ;  I've  had  scores  of 
genealogy  experts  working  for  me ;  and  I've  had 
amazing  luck.  I've  worked  out  the  chain  of 
descent  in  Egypt,  Italy,  France,  England,  Scot 
land,  and  England  again  without  a  break ;  and 
I've  learned  for  an  absolute  certainty  that 
Thompson-Pratt  is  the  direct  descendant  of  the 
Egyptian  Menen-Ra,  whose  mummy  you  see 
against  the  wall  yonder. 

"  And  now,"  he  went  on,  « I'll  explain  to  you 
what  I  intend  to  do."  But  he  did  not  explain  to 
me  then.  The  door  opened  and  Thompson-Pratt 
came  into  the  room.  He  nodded  curtly  enough 
to  Gargrave,  but  he  greeted  me  kindly.  "  Hullo, 
old  man.  How's  the  world  using  you  ?  Heard 
you  were  up  taking  out  your  M.A.  Staying  up 
long  ?  " 

"  Going  down  to-morrow.  I've  just  come  in 
here  because  Gargrave  wanted  to  show  me  some 
tricks  with  his  mummy." 

"  Damnation,"  said  Thompson-Pratt  to  the 
owner  of  the  rooms,  "you  haven't  been  talking 
about  —  er  —  secrets,  have  you  ?  " 

"  No  secrets  will  be  given  away  unless  you  do 
it  yourself,"  said  Gargrave,  oracularly.  "  I've 
just  asked  him  in  to  be  an  independent  witness." 

"  Oh,  I  see,"  said  Thompson-Pratt,  getting  into 
a  chair.  « But  look  here,  you  know.  I  don't 
half  like  this  experiment  of  yours." 

"  It's  in  the  cause  of  science." 


184  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

"  Science  be  sugared."  He  stared  thoughtfully 
into  the  fire  and  then  turned  round  and  faced 
Gargrave  squarely.  "  Look  here,  sir,  if  you  are 
going  to  make  use  of  me,  I'm  going  to  share  some 
of  the  profits.  You  say  that  wrinkled,  smelly 
person  in  the  coffin  yonder  is  my  ancestor,  and 
you  are  going  to  make  me  to  talk  his  thoughts. 
Well,  you  may  do  it,  or  you  mayn't.  But  if  it 
does  come  off,  it's  just  on  the  cards  the  old  boy 
may  let  slip  something  in  the  natural  science  line 
which  is  strange  to  us  to-day.  I've  a  notion  those 
old  Egyptians  were  a  lot  ahead  of  us  in  some 
branches  of  chemistry,  and  if  I  could  get  hold  of 
the  way  of  making  some  new  dye,  for  instance, 
to  use  with  alizerene " 

"  You  shall  have  a  copy  of  every  word  that's 
said,"  Gargrave  promised. 

"  From  the  phonograph  ?  Yes,  I  see.  But 
it'll  be  in  what-d'you-call-em  language  —  hiero 
glyphics,  isn't  it  ?  Ancient  Egyptian,  I  mean." 

"  You  shall  overlook  my  translation  as  I  make 
it.  Man,  I  mean  to  do  fairly  by  you." 

«  Oh,  all  right,"  said  Thompson-Pratt.  «  Don't 
get  shirty.  Only,  a  man  must  look  after  his  own 
interests,  y'  know,  that's  all ;  and  besides,  it's  a 
hundred  to  one  the  whole  thing's  a  fizzle." 

Gargrave  set  his  teeth.  "  Have  you  any  more 
to  say  ?  "  he  inquired. 

"  No,"  said  Thompson-Pratt,  with  a  bored  yawn. 
«  Wire  in." 

Now  from  where  I  sat   on   the   table,  I  was 


THE   MUMMY   OF   THOMPSON-PRATT        185 

watching  the  proceedings  pretty  carefully ;  and 
it  struck  me  that  Gargrave  merely  got  a  hypnotic 
influence  over  Thompson-Pratt  in  the  usual  way. 
He  has  told  me  since  that  he  did  something  more, 
and  perhaps  this  may  be  so ;  but  anyway  the 
patient  seemed  to  go  to  sleep  and  to  wake  up 
again,  and  be  entirely  under  the  control  of  Gar- 
grave's  will.  He  made  him  lie  down  on  the 
hearthrug  in  front  of  the  fire,  and  then  he  took 
the  mummy  out  of  its  case  and  laid  that  down 
on  the  hearthrug  also,  side  by  side  with  its  living 
descendant.  Then  he  told  me  to  go  out  of  the 
room. 

"  Whatever  for  ?  "  I  asked.  "  I  thought  you 
invited  me  here  to  see  an  experiment  ?  " 

"  So  I  did.  And  you  shall  see  it  when  the 
time  comes.  But  I  have  one  or  two  more  prep 
arations  to  make  first,  which  I  don't  choose  to 
be  overlooked.  You  must  go  into  my  inner  room." 

"  I  have  a  rare  big  mind  to  go  out  of  the  place 
altogether." 

"  You  can  do  it  if  you  like,  of  course,  but  you 
are  a  fool  if  you  do." 

Well,  perhaps  it  was  undignified,  but  I 
shrugged  my  shoulders,  and  swallowed  my 
pride,  and  marched  off  into  the  inner  room.  I 
will  own  I  was  getting  curious  as  to  what  was 
coming  next. 

Gargrave  came  after  me,  and  had  the  imperti 
nence  to  lock  the  door  on  my  heels.  So  there  I 
was  anyway,  and  as  he  seemed  to  have  a  dislike 


186  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

for  smoking,  I  lit  a  pipe  and  filled  the  room  with 
heavy  reek. 

I  will  give  him  credit  for  one  thing,  though. 
He  did  not  keep  me  waiting  long.  He  opened 
the  door  in  a  minute  or  so  and  said  :  "  Sorry,  old 
man,  but  I  must  keep  my  processes  secret  at  any 
cost.  Come  in." 

I  went  in.  Thompson-Pratt  and  the  man  who 
had  predeceased  him  some  3000  years  were  lying 
side  by  side  on  the  hearthrug,  to  all  appearance 
exactly  as  I  had  left  them. 

Evening  was  come  on,  the  lamps  had  not  been 
lit,  and  only  the  dancing,  uncanny  firelight  illumi 
nated  the  faces ;  and  as  I  gazed  a  little  closer,  a 
curious  thrill  went  through  me.  It  was  Thorn  p- 
son-Pratt's  which  seemed  to  be  the  dead  face  now. 
Behind  the  shrivelled  mask  of  the  mummy  there 
was  surely  some  flicker  of  life.  Gargrave  was 
bending  down,  arranging  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
phonograph  over  the  mummy's  lips,  and  as  he 
moved  aside  I  could  have  sworn  I  saw  the  long- 
dead  limbs  twitch.  I  took  out  a  handkerchief 
and  wiped  my  forehead.  Gargrave  saw  me 
do  it. 

"  Now  don't  be  an  idiot,"  he  said.  "  There's 
nothing  to  be  scared  of.  Just  keep  cool,  and 
take  accurate  mental  notes  of  all  you  see  and 
hear."  He  tried  to  talk  calmly,  but  I  saw  he 
was  quivering  with  excitement  for  all  that.  He 
turned  to  the  mummy  and  said  something  in  a 
tongue  I  could  not  understand,  enunciating  each 


THE   MUMMY  OF   THOMPSON-PRATT        187 

syllable  most  distinctly.  I  distinguished  the 
word  «  Menen-Ra,"  but  could  make  out  nothing 
else. 

Neither  the  mummy  nor  Thompson-Pratt  gave 
any  sign  of  having  heard. 

He  repeated  the  sentence  again,  varying  the 
pronunciation  of  the  words,  and  this  time  got 
a  reply. 

"  You  must  speak  English  if  you  wish  me  to 
understand,"  came  the  answer  in  a  stifled,  dusty 
voice  directly  from  the  mummy's  lips. 

Gargrave  started,  and  I  think  he  swore. 
"  Why  ?  "  he  asked  savagely. 

"  Because  I  have  forgotten  the  other  —  the  old 
tongue." 

"  If  I  am  being  played  with,"  said  Gargrave, 
"  there  is  one  man  here  who  will  carry  out  of 
this  room  my  marks  on  him  for  life." 

There  was  no  answer.  He  went  on :  « Do 
you  know  your  name  ?  " 

"  Menen-Ra." 

«  Where  buried  ?  " 

"Thebes." 

"  You  were  not." 

"  I  was  buried  at  Thebes ;  but  I  should  be 
taken  afterwards  to  our  family  vault  on  the 
estate  by  Koorkoor,  according  to  our  custom." 

"  It  was  in  the  desert  by  the  oasis  of  Koorkoor 
I  found  you.  In  what  manner  of  grave  ?  " 

"  Rock-hewn,  with  my  titles  carved  above 
me." 


188  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

«  Alone  ?  " 

"  No,  my  four  uncles,  killed  in  war,  would  be 
with  me." 

"  Were  they  all  sound  men  ?  " 

"  No,  my  uncle  Nepo,  the  last  buried  and  so 
the  next  to  me,  had  his  right  arm  lopped  off  at 
the  elbow  :  an  old  wound." 

Gargrave  broke  off  his  questioning  and  hit  the 
table  excitedly.  "  That  settles  it,"  he  cried. 
«  No  living  soul  knows  what  the  grave  was  like 
except  myself,  and  no  one  could  have  guessed  it. 
And  it's  all  absolutely  exact.  It's  a  miracle,  but 
I've  done  it.  The  soul  of  Thompson-Pratt  has 
gone  back  to  its  old  abiding-place,  and  now  I 
shall  be  told  the  history  of  3000  years  ago 
exactly  as  it  happened,  and  I  can  give  that 
history  to  the  modern  world.  When  he  spoke 
English  I  thought  there  was  fraud ;  but  there 
isn't ;  it's  just  part  of  the  natural  lapse."  He 
rubbed  his  hands.  "  Lord  !  how  simple  it  is, 
and  I'm  the  only  man  that's  got  the  key."  He 
turned  again  to  the  mummy.  "  Menen-Ra,  I 
command  you  that  you  lift  up  your  voice  now 
in  history,  and  tell  us  of  the  Government  of 
Egypt,  and  of  Pharaoh,  and  of  Pharaoh's  inner 
life,  and  the  daily  life  you  lived  yourself,  and  the 
daily  life  of  the  people." 

And  the  mummy  in  its  dusty  tones  began  to 
speak.  There  was  no  doubt  about  the  genuine 
ness  of  it  all,  that  I  can  vouch  for.  The  phra 
seology  was  certainly  that  of  Thompson-Pratt, 


THE  MUMMY  OF  THOMPSON-PRATT        189 

reader  of  the  Pink  'Uh,  and  Demonstrator  in 
Chemistry  at  the  Cavendish  Labs.  But  the  sen 
timents  were  those  of  ancient  Egypt,  spoken  as 
no  other  men  now  living  (except  Gargrave  and 
myself)  ever  heard  them,  but  startlingly  fresh 
and  real.  Not  even  the  most  imaginative  stu 
dent,  redolent  in  the  lore  of  that  long-dead  land, 
could  have  invented  them.  They  were  marvel 
lous  in  their  vivid  truth.  They  were  nothing 
short  of  a  revelation. 

But  Gargrave  cursed  as  he  listened.  He  had 
looked  for  a  dissertation  on  history,  and  he  was 
getting  chroniques  scandaleuses ;  he  had  expected 
talk  about  Kings'  policies,  and  he  was  hearing 
the  tales  of  flirtations  with  their  housemaids. 
He  wanted  descriptions  of  Council  Chambers, 
and  he  got  the  dimensions  of  wine-shops.  He 
had  fallen  into  the  error  of  thinking  that  all  the 
men  of  bygone  Egypt  were  as  thoughtful  and 
ponderous  as  the  hoary  few  whose  scribings  have 
remained  ;  and  when  he  found  that  the  ancient 
land  contained  devil-may-care  pleasure-eaters  like 
those  that  live  in  this  land  of  ours  to-day,  he 
could  have  beaten  himself  in  the  fury  of  his 
disappointment. 

For  myself,  as  I  listened  whilst  Menen-Ra 
prattled  on,  I  laughed  till  the  tears  came,  and 
my  only  regret  —  a  professional  one  —  was  that 
I  could  not  use  up  that  unmatchable  subject- 
matter  hereafter.  I  was  listening  to  the  talk  of 
a  man-about-town,  who  lived  in  Thebes  3000 


190  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

years  ago,  and  learning  in  detail  exactly  how  he 
wasted  his  days  and  how  he  enjoyed  his  nights. 
He  told  us  of  his  bets,  his  bouts,  his  light  loves, 
and  his  serious  entanglements.  Every  third  sen 
tence  referred  to  a  long-dead  Chloe,  evidently  the 
Thais  of  her  day  in  that  far-forgotten  Thebes. 
Even  allowing  for  Menen-Ra's  obvious  partial 
ity,  Chloe  must  have  been  a  lady  of  wonderful 
powers,  albeit  she  was  a  mere  dancer  by  recog 
nised  profession.  It  was  a  gorgeous  piece  of  de 
scription.  But  as  it  was  given  to  us  it  would 
not  publish ;  no,  not  even  inside  a  yellow  cover. 
And  though  I  did  note  down  a  few  items  to 
make  into  future  copy,  I  think  I  shall  give  them 
as  my  own.  They  are  quite  new,  and  no  one 
will  accuse  me  of  lifting  them  ;  and,  besides,  it 
is  merely  foolishness  to  offer  unasked-for  expla 
nations  which  no  one  will  believe. 

But  I  cannot  say  I  heard  as  much  as  I  wished. 
It  was  evident  that  Menen-Ra,  after  his  silence  of 
3000  years,  was  equal  to  going  on  till  midnight. 
But  his  was  a  mouth  which  could  only  speak  on 
its  own  topic.  Again  and  again  Gargrave  tried 
to  lead  this  wanderer  from  a  long-forgotten  past 
on  to  the  more  weighty  matters  of  state,  and 
time  after  time  he  got  back  to  talk  about  cock 
fights,  and  dicing  bouts,  and  ape-racing  on  the 
dry  Nile  banks;  or  else  he  would  speak  to  us  of 
Chloe  and  his  other  loves  with  a  freedom  which 
is  quite  obsolete  to-day.  He  brimmed  with  these 
reminiscences.  But  he  had  no  others  of  a  graver 


THE  MUMMY   OF  THOMPSON-PRATT        191 

sort.  This  Menen-Ra  had  lived  for  nothing  but 
his  own  personal  pleasure,  and  beyond  the  limits 
of  that  he  knew  no  more  than  we  moderns  did 
about  the  larger  affairs  of  his  country. 

Gargrave  tried  him  on  every  topic.  He  asked 
about  the  army.  Menen-Ra  started  off  loud  in 
the  praises  of  his  favourite  gladiator,  and  gave 
us  the  latest  betting  on  his  approaching  fight. 
Gargrave  asked  for  some  song  of  the  priests  of 
Osiris,  and  this  faded  roysterer  promptly  trolled 
forth  a  drinking  chant  that  nearly  split  his 
dusky  throat. 

And  at  last,  seeing  the  futility  of  getting 
what  he  wanted,  Gargrave  savagely  put  an  end 
to  the  inquisition.  He  clapped  a  large  sponge 
over  the  still  white  face  of  Thompson-Pratt,  and 
took  a  green  powder  from  the  mantelpiece  and 
threw  it  on  the  sponge.  There  was  a  paff  of 
streaky  flame,  and  Thompson-Pratt  sprang  up 
choking  and  spluttering. 

"  I  say,  good  Lord,  Gargrave,  what  devil's 
game  have  you  been  up  to  now  ?  What  have 
you  been  putting  me  to  bed  on  the  hearthrug 
with  that  old  image  for  ?  Here !  I  say,  have 
you  got  a  whisky-and-soda  ?  Get  me  some 
whisky,  for  heaven's  sake.  I'm  nearly  parched 
to  death." 

I  mixed  a  drink,  and  handed  it  to  him.  He 
gulped  half  of  it  thirstily.  Then  he  bethought 
him  of  a  toast.  He  nodded  towards  the  mummy 
on  the  floor.  "  Here's  to  you,  old  cock,"  said 


192  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

he,  and  emptied  his  tumbler  to  the  dregs.  "I 
wonder  what  the  equivalent  of  whisky  was  in 
your  benighted  day  ?  I  bet  you  had  your  share 
of  it,  if  you  are  ancestor  of  mine." 

«  You're  a  Goth,"  I  said. 

"  I  know,"  said  Thompson-Pratt,  "  and  I  had 
a  far  better  time  of  it  than  —  say  —  a  Construc 
tive  Egyptologist  has.  Come  along  to  the  Hoop 
and  have  some  dinner.  We'll  leave  Gargrave  to 
go  on  thumbing  at  my  unpleasant  forefather." 


XII 

THE  LYNCHERS1 


IT  all  began  round  the  fountain  in  the  Cotton 
Exchange,  where  men  gamble  at  the  yell  over 
futures,  whilst  the  cigarette  ends  unroll  them 
selves  in  the  water  below.  I  stood  round  there 
for  a  while  doing  a  little  business ;  strolled  to 
the  middle  of  the  room,  and  settled  with  a  ship 
ping  agent  about  a  Liverpool  consignment; 
went  to  a  table  at  the  other  end,  and  conned 
the  Picayune  and  the  Times  Democrat.  All  the 
while  I  was  hungering  to  be  gone.  The  close 
heat  of  the  place  oppressed  me. 

I  ought  to  have  stayed  in  the  Cotton  Ex 
change  all  day,  to  meet  a  man,  as  it  were  casu 
ally,  on  a  point  of  the  most  delicate  business 
diplomacy  and  finesse.  It  was  this  matter  which 
solely  had  brought  me  all  the  way  from  Man 
chester,  England,  to  New  Orleans,  Louisiana ; 

1  Those  who  do  not  know  the  Black  Belt  of  the  United 
States  will  probably  set  down  this  tale  as  a  more  or  less  gratui 
tous  libel;  those  who  happen  to  have  been  in  New  Orleans 
during  the  September  of  1893  will  recognise  most  if  not  all  of 
the  incidents.  —  C.  J.  C.  H. 

o  193 


194  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

and  on  that  day  the  man  was  almost  certain  to 
be  about  and  in  the  mood  favourable;  but  the 
distaste  for  the  place  and  its  hot,  clamorous 
atmosphere  grew  upon  me. 

At  last  I  threw  down  my  palm  fan  and  stood 
up.  I  could  endure  it  no  longer.  If  the  whole 
of  my  fortune  instead  of  only  a  part  had  de 
pended  upon  my  remaining,  I  could  not  have 
stayed.  You  need  not  ask  me  more  definitely 
why :  I  can  give  you  no  adequate  reason ;  I 
suppose  my  nether  angel  must  have  clinched  his 
fingers  for  a  good  grip  just  then. 

There  was  no  settled  design  in  my  mind  as 
to  what  to  do  next.  I  wandered  into  the  Pick 
wick  Club  and  out  again,  and  then  took  a  bit 
of  a  stroll  down  Canal  Street  towards  the  levee. 
The  midday  heat  was  brazen,  and  the  stink  from 
the  open  grey  sewer  at  the  pavement  side  came 
up  to  one  in  fat,  sickly  breaths.  I  turned  again, 
went  to  the  Chess  and  Checkers  Club  for  a  julep, 
and  then  out  again,  still  restless,  still  oppressed. 
To  get  a  whiff  of  breeze  I  took  one  of  the  trolley 
cars  which  run  down  St.  Charles's  Avenue.  You 
never  have  to  wait  for  those :  they  follow  on  the 
heels  of  one  another  all  day  long,  and  through 
many  hours  of  the  night. 

Inside  was  a  gingerbread-coloured  woman 
fanning  herself.  She  nodded  me  good-day.  In  the 
reflection  of  an  advertisement-mirror  I  saw  the 
pink  of  my  own  braces  showing  wetly  through 
the  back  of  my  white  alpaca  coat.  It  was  terribly 


THE    LYNCHERS  195 

hot.  The  car  took  us  out  from  the  business  zone 
to  streets  of  dwelling-houses,  stopping  at  the  block 
corners  for  occasional  passengers.  And  then  we 
went  on  through  the  prettier  boulevard  which  is 
flanked  by  innumerable  frame  houses  of  every  tint 
with  their  gardens  of  foliage  plants,  and  past  an 
occasional  house  of  stone,  which  denotes  the 
residence  of  Israel ;  and  we  branched  to  the  right 
by  the  levee  and  ran  up  to  the  terminus. 

There  were  others  in  the  car,  breeze-seekers 
like  myself ;  and  with  these  I  had  intended  to 
return ;  but  again  whim  thrust  me  afoot.  I  got 
out  and  walked  ;  walked  on  till  the  trim  frame 
houses  thinned,  and  nigger  cabins  appeared,  and 
empty  lots  peopled  with  meat  cans  and  broken 
glass ;  and  still  I  wandered  further,  to  the  very 
fringes  of  the  city. 

There  rose  a  bit  of  a  knoll  by  the  wayside,  and 
on  it  I  climbed  and  sat  down.  On  one  hand  of 
me  was  New  Orleans,  with  its  many  hideous, 
straddling  Eiffel  towers,  built  to  carry  the  electric 
wires ;  in  front,  the  blistering  silver  of  Lake 
Pontchartrain ;  on  the  left  hand,  forest  and 
swamp,  and  still  more  swamp. 

Sitting  still  in  the  glare  of  the  sun  brought  out 
perspiration  afresh.  A  hundred  yards  away  a 
man  was  stretched  out  under  the  shadow  of  a 
white  oak.  The  grey  straggles  of  Spanish  moss 
with  which  the  tree  was  hung  dangled  lankly  in 
the  moist  heavy  air ;  but  the  shade  looked  cool. 
I  went  towards  it. 


196  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

A  few  sunbeams  stole  through  the  upper 
branches  on  to  the  turf,  and  in  these  a  pair  of 
purple-black  butterflies  flashed  and  reflashed, 
vanishing  when  they  entered  the  flanking  shadows. 
The  theatre  of  their  dance  was  just  above  the 
head  of  the  man  who  lay  upon  the  ground,  and 
though  they  seemed  disturbed  by  his  presence  in 
no  whit,  on  my  approach  they  flitted  cautiously 
behind  the  clump  of  palmettos  in  the  background. 
It  seemed  to  me  that  the  man  was  very  fast 
asleep,  and  I  envied  him.  He,  at  least,  was 
beyond  the  discomforts  of  that  glaring  day. 

I  sat  me  down  at  the  opposite  rim  of  the  white 
oak's  shade,  with  hands  locked  round  my  knees, 
and  looked  upwards  at  the  hot  sky.  A  foul, 
ragged  bird,  with  red,  bare  head,  was  sailing  in 
small,  slow  circles  directly  overhead.  I  looked 
again,  and  in  the  depths  of  the  gleaming  blue  saw 
other  specks  of  black,  which  grew  as  I  watched. 
They  were  other  birds  coming  off  their  distant 
beats  in  answer  to  some  signal  from  the  first. 
The  birds  were  turkey  buzzards. 

Involuntarily  I  shuddered,  surprising  myself  by 
the  action,  and  then  lowered  my  eyes  from  the 
carrion  fowl  to  see  if  I  could  make  out  what  dead 
thing  it  was  which  had  lured  them  from  their 
patrol.  My  glance  ran  round  the  space  in  front 
without  seeing  any  matter  to  fill  the  question,  and 
fell  on  the  figure  of  the  sleeping  man  in  the  shade 
beside  me.  He  had  not  moved  since  I  came. 
Watching  more  closely  I  could  see  no  tremor  of 


THE   LYNCHERS  197 

his  body,  not  even  the  gentle  movement  of  breath 
ing.  He  was  sleeping  like  a  figure  cast  in  metal. 
Upon  his  white,  upturned  face  mosquitoes  were 
feasting  unchecked  :  a  great,  bloated  horse-fly  had 
lodged  itself  in  the  fork  of  one  of  his  thumbs. 

"My  friend,"  thought  I,  "you  must  have  an 
extraordinary  amount  of  liquor  on  board  to  stand 
so  much.  You'll  be  in  torment  when  you  wake  if 
this  goes  on.  Let  me  drive  that  horse-fly  away." 

I  tore  down  a  green  palmetto  leaf  for  a  fan, 
and  walked  across.  The  insects  rose  in  a  buzzing 
cloud,  but  the  man  never  moved  his  skin. 

Something  in  his  apathy  moved  me  like  a  blow, 
and  I  started  back,  dropping  the  fan  on  to  the 
short  scrub  grass.  Then  leaning  over,  I  took  the 
hand  which  lay  on  his  breast,  and  lifted  it.  The 
joints  moved  harshly  ;  and  when  I  let  go  it  sprang 
back  with  a  stiff-fingered  thud  on  to  his  breast. 

«  Dead ! " 

Yes,  dead  beyond  a  doubt ;  and  after  the  first 
shock  of  discovery,  one's  impulse  was  to  seek  for 
the  cause.  My  eyes  roved  curiously  over  his 
figure  from  head  to  toes,  and  from  toes  to  crest 
again.  Then  I  began  to  understand  the  matter. 
On  the  ground  beneath  the  left  ear  was  a  squat, 
dark  brown  cone  as  high  as  a  shilling's  worth  of 
pence.  It  was  coagulated  blood. 

The  sense  of  the  day's  heat  went  from  me. 
My  damp  clothes  hung  upon  me  cold  and  clammy. 

After  a  pause  I  knelt ;  then  raised  the  head, 
and  peered  beneath  it.  At  the  back  was  a 


198  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

ghastly  hole,  ringed  round  by  charred  flesh  and 
burnt  hair.  The  man  must  have  been  shot  at 
hand-grips.  He  was  dead  as  an  axe. 

I  started  back  to  my  feet,  and  stood  with  shak 
ing  knees  wondering  what  ought  to  be  done. 
Help  to  the  man  himself  there  was  none  to  be 
given.  The  position  of  the  wound  and  the 
absence  of  a  weapon  precluded  the  idea  of  a 
suicide.  Clearly  he  had  been  murdered. 

My  life  had  been  lived  on  humdrum  office 
stools,  and  in  my  daily  newspaper  I  had  always 
skipped  anything  approaching  to  tragedy.  These 
things  filled  me  with  physical  nausea.  And  here 
I  was  thrust  by  the  shoulders  into  the  inner 
chamber  of  horrors.  My  first  idea  was  to  bolt 
incontinently :  my  second,  to  go  forthwith  and 
lay  information  with  the  police :  it  seemed  best 
to  me  that  I  should  act  upon  the  second.  But, 
thought  I,  it  would  be  better  to  learn  first  the 
victim's  name. 

•  Yes,  this  last  amendment  appeared  unanswer 
able. 

With  infinite  loathing  I  reached  down  to  take 
a  handkerchief  from  his  breast  pocket.  My  eyes 
swam,  and  my  fingers  trembled  like  a  palsied 
woman's,  as  I  plucked  it  away.  It  seemed  to 
come  with  reluctance.  It  was  of  fine  linen,  hem 
stitched  round  the  borders,  and  of  clammy  wet 
ness.  I  spread  it  out  against  the  sun,  and  because 
of  my  dazed  eyes  could  see  no  name  ;  and  then 
was  about  to  examine  each  corner  separately 


THE  LYKCHERS  199 

when  a  startling  thing  happened.  A  pistol  shot 
rang  out  into  the  hot  air,  and  then  another,  and 
then  what  seemed  to  be  a  whole  platoon.  I 
heard  the  bullets  whisp  past  me  and  patter 
against  the  lower  branches  of  the  white  oak  and 
the  leaves  of  the  palmettos  ;  and  one  hit  my  straw 
hat  in  the  brim  and  spun  it  a  fathom  away  on 
to  the  coarse  turf.  Looking  up,  I  saw  two  men 
reloading  smoking  revolvers. 

"  Gentlemen,"  I  gasped,  "  for  God's  sake  what 
are  you  doing  ?  " 

"  You  bloody  murderer,"  said  one,  "  the  law 
mayn't  get  you,  but  I  guess  we  will." 

"  I'm  innocent,"  I  screamed.  "  I  swear  to  you 
I  know  nothing  about  what's  done  here.  I  came 
up  by  accident,  found  by  accident  that  he  was 
dead,  and  was  just  looking  for  his  name 
when " 

"  Liar  !     The  boy  saw  you  shoot  him   down 

from  behind,  and  ran  for  help.     We  were    the 

first  men  he  found  heeled.     You  blasted  nigger  1 '' 

Nigger!  I'm  no  nigger.     I'm  an  Englishman." 

You  may  be  a  Liberian  for  anything  I  care ; 

but  nigger  you  are,  because  the  boy  saw  your 

worsted  hair  as  I  see  it  now  —  and  the  turkey 

buzzards  are  waiting  for  you." 

The  man  lifted  his  pistol  again  as  he  spoke, 
and  took  a  steady  shot  over  the  crook  of  his 
elbow.  The  bullet  seared  my  ribs.  I  turned 
and  fled  like  a  frightened  dog. 


200  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

II 

Into  what  wilderness  that  wild,  mad  flight 
took  me  I  could  not  tell.  The  most  abject  fear 
blinded  my  eyes,  even  as  it  lent  wings  to  my  feet. 
The  two  men  started  after  me  on  the  instant. 
The  lead  from  their  weapons  outstripped  me  in 
the  race,  but  they  themselves  could  not.  I  was 
unscathed  by  the  first  discharge,  and  when  they 
slackened  speed  to  reload  I  passed  out  of  shot. 

Panting,  sweating,  aching,  my  chest  and  fore 
head  alike  fit  to  burst,  I  held  along  my  course, 
instinctively  edging  from  the  road  and  making  for 
the  dense  cover  of  the  forest  ahead.  The  insensate 
fear  of  the  animal  possessed  me  wholly  then,  and, 
animal-like,  it  seemed  to  me  that  the  recesses  of 
the  timber  were  my  only  harbourage. 

They  must  have  viewed  me  till  I  got  amongst 
the  trees,  for  nowhere  did  the  bushes  and  grasses 
of  the  open  rise  more  than  shoulder-high.  My 
movement  in  bird  flight  was  necessarily  slow,  for 
there  were  deep  black  pools  to  skirt,  and  bosky 
swamps  which  clogged  the  footsteps.  As  I  dived 
into  the  outskirts  of  the  timber  a  great  shout  went 
up  behind  me,  and  for  a  moment  I  glanced  back. 
The  pursuers  had  been  reinforced.  Straggling 
away  in  a  long  tail,  which  reached  up  to  the 
yellow  streak  of  road  behind,  the  hunt  must  have 
numbered  a  hundred  souls.  And  all  these  would 
have  killed  me  like  a  rabid  beast  did  the  chance 
come  to  them  ! 


THE  LYNCHERS  201 

I  turned  and  ran  afresh,  crashing  through  the 
undergrowth,  threading  my  way  through  the 
clumps  of  cypress  trees.  The  grey  streamers  of 
Spanish  moss  hung  down  from  the  branches  and 
brushed  my  face  as  I  tore  past.  Broken  frag 
ments  entered  my  parched  and  gaping  mouth. 

Once  I  stopped  at  a  pool  to  drink.  The  black 
water  was  rich  with  sulphur,  but  it  tasted  to  me 
like  the  nectar  of  the  gods.  I  started  up  from 
my  knees  with  panic  reawakened.  The  shouts 
of  the  pursuers  came  to  me  echoing  down  the 
tree  aisles.  They  were  still  hot  on  the  trail.  I 
skirted  the  pool  and  plunged  deeper  into  the 
welded  masses  of  the  forest.  And  so  on,  and  on  ; 
and  — and  for  a  space  I  recollect  no  more. 


rn 

Yet,  even  after  I  lost  my  few  scattered  remnants 
of  sense,  I  must  have  continued  my  flight.  The 
flesh  was  stronger  than  the  mind,  and  my  feet 
carried  me  out  at  the  further  side  of  the  forest 
and  well  into  the  marshy  plain  beyond,  before 
they  finally  set  me  down  senseless  and  well-nigh 
inanimate. 

Night  was  advanced  when  I  came  to  conscious 
ness  again,  a  heavy,  dank  night,  with  the  darkness 
closing  down  on  one  in  hot  panting  beats.  The 
smell  of  the  swamp  around  was  thick  with  sul 
phurous  fumes.  The  noise  of  the  frogs  and  the 


202  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

crickets  and  the  jarflies  was  almost  deafening. 
Overhead  not  a  star  shone  through  the  veil,  but 
amongst  the  mists  on  either  hand  the  fireflies 
spurted  their  tiny  flames,  and  here  and  there 
shone  the  phosphorescent  gleam  of  rotting  wood. 
Occasionally  a  blink  of  summer  lightning  showed 
me  things  more  clearly. 

I  knew  not  where  I  was.  The  wish  for  fur 
ther  flight  was  still  intense  within  me,  but  I 
knew  not  which  way  to  turn,  and  accordingly 
cowered  still  in  my  form. 

Morning  came,  and  the  foetid  mists  of  the 
swamp  were  rolled  up  for  the  day.  I  stood 
stiffly  up  and  looked  around  me.  I  was  in  the 
midst  of  a  wet  plain,  cut  by  the  railroad  to 
Mobile.  Only  here  and  there  a  copse  of  trees 
broke  the  level.  As  I  looked,  I  saw  a  man 
running. 

He  was  coming  towards  me  at  a  jog-trot,  his 
head  down  like  a  dog  following  a  scent.  Occa 
sionally  he  stopped  as  if  at  fault,  and  peered 
about  him.  He  was  on  my  trail. 

My  first  idea  was  to  run ;  my  second  to  stay. 
The  pursuer  was  only  one.  Perhaps  I  could  in 
duce  him  to  listen  to  reason.  Why  should  I,  an 
innocent  man,  submit  to  be  the  quarry  of  this 
ruthless  chase  ?  If  he  attacked  me,  I  would  fight 
him  with  my  naked  hands ;  and  let  the  sin  of  his 
blood  lie  upon  his  own  head.  • 

I  ambushed  myself  behind  a  tussock  of  palms, 
and  waited  his  coming.  If  he  threatened  me 


THE  LYNCHERS  203 

with  any  weapon,  why  then  I  should  not  hesi 
tate  to  act. 

He  trotted  up  to  the  place  where  I  had  slept, 
and  halted,  regarding  it  thoughtfully.  He  was  a 
man  of  my  own  height,  with  white  but  slightly 
negroid  features,  and  yellow,  kinky  hair.  In  his 
right  hand  he  carried  a  Marlin  repeating  rifle.  I 
stepped  out  and  confronted  him. 

"  Oh,  this  is  where  you  have  got  to  ! "  said  he. 

"  This  is  where  I  have  been  driven." 

"  You  ran  well,"  he  replied  slowly,  looking  me 
up  and  down.  "  I  ought  to  say  that  I  am  in 
debted  to  you.  They  mistook  you  for  me." 

"  Then  it  was  you  who " 

"  Yes,  I  killed  the  man  you  found  under  the 
white  oak.  You're  a  stranger  here,  or  you 
wouldn't  have  meddled  with  him,  especially  as 
you  are " 

He  paused,  and  I  asked  him  to  finish  his 
sentence.  "  A  coloured  man  like  myself." 

"la  nigger  !     Good  Lord,  what  next  ?  " 

He  shrugged  his  shoulders  impatiently.  « I 
can  see  by  your  clothes  that  you  don't  class 
yourself  as  such.  Perhaps  colour  don't  count 
for  so  much  your  side.  Have  your  own  way 
about  it,  pardner.  But  say,  what  do  you  pro 
pose  to  do  ?  " 

"Make  the  best  of  my  way  back  to  New 
Orleans." 

"  Bah  I  You'll  be  shot  on  sight  if  you  try 
coming  out  of  this  swamp.  There  are  twenty- 


204  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

five  hundred  men  round  it.  Cotton  is  slack  in 
the  city  just  now,"  said  the  fellow  with  bitter 
satire,  "and  so  is  sugar,  and  every  man  who 
owns  a  gun  has  come  out  for  the  sport.  They've 
pickets  everywhere.  They're  making  a  regular 
campaign  of  it." 

"  But  I  am  an  innocent  man.  You  are  the 
real " 

"  Murderer  ?  If  it  pleases  you  to  say  so,  yes. 
But  what  does  that  matter  ?  Here,  read." 

He  thrust  a  paper  into  my  hand,  and  putting 
tobacco  into  his  mouth,  sat  down  upon  the 
ground.  I  did  the  same,  with  the  paper  crac 
kling  between  my  fingers.  The  flimsy  news-sheet 
was  given  entirely  over  to  the  murder  and  the 
chase  for  the  killer,  full  of  sensational  "  scare " 
headlines,  daubed  with  tawdry  drawings.  There 
were  two  horrid  cuts  of  negroes  hanging  by  the 
neck  to  trees ;  and  I  learnt  with  cold  thrills  that 
these  were  the  cousin  and  brother  of  the  mur 
derer.  The  lynchers  had  come  upon  them,  could 
extract  none  of  the  information  they  desired  as 
to  the  fugitive's  whereabouts,  either  because  these 
captives  did  not  know  or  would  not  tell,  and  had 
incontinently  strung  them  up  to  the  nearest  con 
venient  place.  "  This  action  on  the  part  of  some 
of  our  citizens  may  appear  high-handed,"  the  re 
porter  wrote,  "but  those  who  are  disposed  to 
judge  them  should  remember  that  both  of  the 
deceased  were  bad  niggers,  and  would  certainly 
have  come  to  grief  sooner  or  later.  A  bad  nigger 


THE   LYNCHERS  205 

on  a  telegraph  post  does  less  mischief  than  two 
bad  niggers  in  the  bush." 

I  let  the  paper  flutter  down  amongst  the  reed- 
grass.  "  Chew  ? "  said  the  man,  offering  me 
tobacco.  I  shook  my  head.  I  was  dazed. 

Then  feeling  that  I  must  say  something,  I 
asked,  "What  did  you  shoot  this  fellow  at  all 
for  ?  " 

"  Look  here,  siree,"  said  the  man,  savagely, 
"  did  you  kill  him  or  did  I  ? " 

«  You  did." 

"  Very  well,  then,  pard  ;  you  mind  your  own 
biz.  I  guess  God's  got  him  down  to  my  account, 
and  I've  to  settle  it  up  myself.  He'll  know,  and 
He'll  see  it  isn't  so  bad  of  me  as  men  down  here 
might  think.  What  we're  talking  about  now 
is  your  fix.  I'm  sorry  you're  in  dirty  water 
through  me,  and  I'm  grateful  to  you  for  dividing 
the  hunt  till  now.  That's  why  I  want  to  help. 
Are  you  heeled  ?  " 

«  Am  I  what  ?  " 

"  Bah  !  no,  I  see  you  aren't.  Well,  here's  a  gun 
for  you.  I've  got  the  Winchester,  and  I  guess 
that'll  see  me  through."  He  drew  a  five-shot 
revolver  from  the  back  pocket  of  his  blue  cotton 
trousers  and  handed  it  to  me.  "  And  here's  shells. 
Now  she  is  loaded,  and  if  you  have  the  chance, 
pard,  you  shoot.  I  guess  you'll  be  cornered 
sooner  or  later,  and  if  you've  got  to  go  under, 
it's  kinder  satisfactory  pumping  lead  into  the 
crowd  as  you  go.  I  reckon  "  —  here  he  patted 


206  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

the  rifle  —  "I  reckon  with  luck  I  should  have 
thirteen  of  'em  here." 

"  But  is  there  no  chance  of  slipping  through 
this  cordon  ?  Once  in  New  Orleans  we  should 
be  all  right." 

"  You  would ;  not  me.  Man,  even  if  I  was  in 
the  city  gaol  they'd  have  me  out  to  lynch.  Prob 
ably  "  —  here  he  shivered  —  "  probably  they'd 
burn  me.  No,  I'm  going  to  see  it  through  in  the 
open.  But  you're  thinking  of  yourself." 

"  Of  course  I  am." 

"  Right,  why  shouldn't  you  ?  You  have  served 
me  a  good  turn,  and  I'd  help  you  if  I  could.  But 
I  don't  see  my  way.  Yonder' s  the  lake  (Pont- 
chartrain),  and  yonder,  and  yonder,  and  yonder's 
all  their  pickets.  They  don't  let  a  soul  pass  outer 
here  without  some  one  knows  him.  I  tell  you 
they've  rubbed  panic  into  all  the  cullered  folk 
round  this  district.  Cabins  are  deserted  by  the 
score.  The  niggers  are  going  away  in  flocks. 
They  know  these  murdering  vigilants  are  out  for 
sport,  and  for  two  pins  would  shoot  down  any 
poor  devil  with  a  touch  of  black  in  his  hide,  just 
as  you  or  I  would  a  rattle.  Yes,  siree,  there's  a 
big  scare  on.  There's  nothing  for  us  to  do  at 
present  but  sit  on  our  tails  and  wait.  Here's 
victuals." 

He  lugged  from  his  pocket  a  small  tin  of 
salmon,  and  opening  it  with  his  knife  gave  me 
half  on  a  slab  of  heavy  corn  bread.  I  ate  it 
greedily.  I  only  put  one  other  question  then. 


THE   LYNCHERS  207 

"  If,"  said  I,  "  you  picked  up  my  trail,  why  could 
not  they  ?  " 

"  Because  I  destroyed  the  sign  of  the  pair  of 
us.  I'm  not  altogether  a  fool,  sonny,  and  if 
woodcraft  'ud  pull  us  through,  our  insurance 
might  be  worth  purchase.  But  it  won't.  You'd 
better  sleep  if  you  can.  You'll  want  your 
strength." 

iv 

I  must,  through  sheer  weariness,  have  slept 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  that  day,  because 
when  I  awoke  the  sun  had  already  dived  from 
sight.  It  was  twilight  then,  and  since  a  Louisi 
ana  summer  day  has  but  a  short  gloaming,  I  knew 
that  soon  it  would  be  night.  But  it  was  not 
this  that  had  roused  me :  it  was  a  reek  of  smoke 
biting  in  my  chest.  I  stood  up  and  looked 
about  me. 

Good  God !  the  reeds  had  been  fired  along  a 
line  five  miles  in  length.  They  were  as  dry  as 
tinder,  and  a  wind  had  sprung  up  which  was 
driving  the  flames  towards  me.  The  murderer 
stood  at  my  elbow  watching  them  moodily. 

"  We  must  run,"  I  cried. 

"  Where  to  ?  That  would  be  playing  their 
game.  Don't  you  see  they  want  the  fire  to  act 
as  beater  ?  They  expect  it  to  drive  us  to  the 
creek  down  yonder,  and  they've  got  guns  posted 
every  ten  yards  to  pot  us  as  we  come  up.  If 


208  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

you're  eager  for  the  battue,  you  go.  I  stay 
here." 

«  To  be  burnt  to  death  ?  " 

"  Not  if  I  can  help  it.  But  I  tell  you  it's  an 
outside  chance.  We  must  take  to  the  water. 
Come." 

He  led  the  way  to  one  of  the  black  pools  of 
the  swamp,  and  I  followed.  The  flames  had  crept 
so  near  that  we  could  hear  the  crackle  of  the  reed- 
grass  as  it  caught ;  and  overhead  the  wind  was 
carrying  glowing  cinders  which  lit  new  fires  as 
they  fell.  We  stepped  over  the  edge,  sinking 
deeply  in  nauseous  slime.  Sulphurous  gases 
rushed  up  from  below  in  glistening  bubbles 
which  almost  suffocated  us.  An  eel  squirmed 
away  from  under  my  foot. 

The  stinging  smoke  by  this  time  well-nigh 
blinded  us,  but  ever  and  anon  canals  of  clear 
air  drifted  through  it,  and  adown  these  we  could 
see  the  tawny  billows  of  flame  standing  out 
crisply  against  the  night.  A  heat  wave  swept 
in  front  of  them,  scorching  us  like  the  breath  of 
a  furnace. 

We  cowered  in  the  stinking  yellow  water, 
coughing  and  choking,  every  minute  finding  it 
more  difficult  to  breathe.  The  sedges  by  the 
side  of  our  pool  caught  fire  and  shot  out  at  us 
tongues  of  greedy  flames.  We  had  to  drop  our 
heads  beneath  the  surface  to  avoid  them. 

Then,  as  though  our  miseries  were  not  suffi 
cient,  another  thing  happened.  The  pool,  it 


THE  LYNCHERS  209 

seemed,  had  a  more  regular  tenant  than  chance 
lodgers  like  ourselves.  On  our  entrance  he  had 
been  lying  en  perdu  amongst  the  reeds ;  but  when 
the  fire  touched  his  shelter,  he  too  made  instinc 
tively  for  the  water  —  an  eight-foot  alligator. 

Now  alligators  have  been  so  hunted  for  their 
skins  throughout  the  South  that  the  survivors  are 
eager  to  flee  at  the  sight  of  man ;  but  here  the 
circumstances  were  unusual.  I  think  I  have 
shown  that  the  murderer  was  a  man  of  physical 
courage  ;  but,  chancing  to  look  up  at  him  when 
the  hideous  reptile  came  in  to  share  our  refuge, 
I  saw  a  face  of  livid  terror.  I  dare  say  my  own 
was  not  much  different,  but  his  fright  seemed  to 
me  then  an  apology  for  my  own,  and,  strange 
though  it  may  seem,  I  drew  comfort  from  it. 
With  the  waves  of  flame  still  singing  and  boom 
ing  overhead  it  was  sheer  death  to  attempt  a 
withdrawal ;  yet  to  my  dying  day  I  shall  never 
forget  my  sensations  then.  I  had  seen  the  foul 
brute's  jagged  yellow  teeth,  when  it  flopped 
beneath  the  surface,  and  every  second  I  expected 
to  find  the  great  jaws  clamped  upon  my  body. 
If  ever  a  man  can  perspire  with  terror  under 
water,  I  did  it  then. 

But  at  last  the  thick  of  the  fire  rolled  away 
from  us,  and  in  the  dim  half-light  which  followed 
its  passage  I  saw  the  great  alligator  slowly  rise 
to  the  surface  and  swim  away  from  us  down  a 
narrow  gut  which  had  opened  in  the  swamp. 

My  companion  also  saw  the  reptile  rise,  and 


210  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

drew  the  wrong  conclusion.  He  thought  it  was 
about  to  attack  him,  and  with  a  scream  scrambled 
out  of  the  pool.  Then  a  rifle-shot  rang  out  above 
the  din,  and  he  gave  another  scream,  and  threw 
up  his  hands  and  fell  upon  the  black  surface  of 
the  pool  and  sank  from  sight  amid  fountains  of 
yellow  splashes. 

Then  some  one  from  behind  said,  "  Hullo  !  by 
gum,  there's  another  of  them,"  and  I  heard  a 
click  of  a  hammer. 

"For  God's  sake,  don't  shoot ! "  I  yelled. 

"  I  should  know  that  voice.  Faith  !  Martin 
Brail,  by  all  that's  wonderful.  So  it  was  you 
we  were  chivvying  all  yesterday  afternoon,  was 
it  ?  Well,  old  man,  I'm  very  sorry  for  the 
mistake,  though  you  certainly  did  give  us  a  rat 
tling  good  run.  However,  that's  over  now,  so 
come  out  of  your  lair  and  we'll  go  back  to  town 
and  have  the  best  dinner  Victor  can  fix  up  for 
us,  even  if  it  takes  till  six  o'clock  to-morrow 
morning  to  eat  it.  I'm  glad  I  plugged  that 
damned  murdering  nigger.  I  say,  though,  let's 
look  at  you  again.  D'  you  know,  old  chap,  you 
are  really  very  much  like  him.  It's  quite  simple 
how  the  mistake  arose." 

"  It  was  mighty  near  being  an  awkward  mis 
take  for  me." 

"  But  not  quite,"  laughed  the  Southerner ; 
"and  misses  don't  count.  Come  along.  You'll 
have  heaps  to  talk  about  at  the  clubs  for  the 
next  week  to  come.  And  I  say,  Brail,  of  course 


THE   LYNCHERS  211 

you  aren't  a  nigger,  old  man,  and  don't  get  your 
back  up  by  thinking  that  I  even  suggest  such 
a  thing  —  but  sometimes  it  isn't  healthy  even  to 
look  like  one  down  in  the  South  here.  If  I  were 
you,  I'd  let  those  short  crisp  curls  on  your  head 
grow,  and  then  dye  'em  an  aggressive  red,  and 
soap  'em  down  flat  and  lanky.  You'll  find  your 
life  go  a  heap  safer  and  easier  that  way." 

"  I  think,"  I  said,  « my  hair  is  likely  to  turn 
grey  within  the  next  day  or  two.  You  have 
knocked  about  twenty  years  off  my  life  by  this 
little  mistake  of  yours.  As  hosts,  you  South 
erners  are  glorious;  but  as  hunters,  I  may  say 
you  are  devils." 


XIII 

THE  FASCINATING  MRS.   WHITE  HE  AD 

THE  worst  of  a  steamer  flirtation  is  that  you 
are  more  or  less  bound  to  see  it  through.  Gil- 
christ  went  to  Las  Palmas  in  Grand  Canary  by  a 
British  African  boat  because  they  start  from  Liver 
pool,  near  which  port  he  resided.  Mrs.  Whitehead 
went  by  the  same  steamer  because  she  thought 
there  was  less  likelihood  of  meeting  people  who 
knew  her  there  than  there  would  be  on  one  of 
the  bigger  and  faster  Cape  boats  which  go  from 
the  South  of  England.  And  to  further  this  coy 
desire  she  decapitated  her  name,  and  appeared  on 
the  purser's  list  as  Mrs.  White.  Gilchrist  fore 
gathered  with  her  before  they  had  brought  Holy- 
head  over  the  quarter,  because  he  and  she  were 
the  only  two  passengers  who  had  not  seen  the 
necessity  of  going  below  to  lie  down. 

"  Will  you  let  me  lash  your  deck  chair  ?  "  he 
said  by  way  of  introduction.  "  The  sea'll  get 
worse  as  soon  as  we  open  up  the  Channel  more, 
and  you  may  get  a  nasty  spill." 

He  very  naturally  got  leave  to  do  that,  and 
(quite  as  naturally)  wedged  himself  in  a  corner 
beside  her,  and  began  to  talk.  That  was  the 

212 


THE  FASCINATING  MRS.   WHITEHEAD      213 

beginning  of  it  all.  By  the  time  they  had  got 
abreast  of  Land's  End  he  had  discovered  that 
her  Christian  name  was  Elsie,  and  by  the  time 
they  had  crossed  the  Bay,  and  were  carrying  the 
brown  hills  of  Portugal  along  on  their  port 
beam,  he  had  dropped  into  the  habit  of  letting 
slip  the  name  of  Elsie  with  the  most  skilled 
unconsciousness  whenever  there  was  no  one  else 
within  ear-shot. 

He  was  not  exactly  new  to  this  sort  of  game, 
and  no  more  was  she.  They  owned  up  to  the 
fact  cheerfully.  "  I  do  hate  callow  youths,"  said 
Mrs.  White ;  and,  "  When  I  find  myself  paired 
off  with  schoolgirls  under  two-and-twenty,"  said 
Gilchrist,  "  I  bolt  as  soon  as  I  conveniently  can, 
and  have  a  comfortable  swear.  Let  me  drag 
you  a  chair  behind  the  lifeboat  there,  and  then 
you  can  smoke  a  cigarette." 

"  One  more  cushion,  please,  just  under  my 
head,"  said  Mrs.  White,  «  and  now  tuck  the  rug 
in  round  my  feet.  There,  thanks,  that's  nice. 
Now  some  men  would  be  shocked  at  my  sitting 
here  and  smoking,  when  half  Portugal  might  be 
looking  on  at  us  through  race-glasses,  for  any 
thing  we  know.  Others  would  be  greedy  and 
keep  all  their  cigarettes  to  themselves.  You  are 
neither  one  nor  the  other,  and  therefore  I  like 
you." 

"  Therefore  Pm  an  infinitely  lucky  man,"  said 
Gilchrist. 

"  I   think  you  are  pretty  lucky  all   the  way 


214  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

round.  Nothing  to  do  except  amuse  yourself. 
You  certainly  aren't  going  to  Grand  Canary  for 
the  good  of  your  health,  because  you're  the  pic 
ture  of  that  already ;  and  I  can't  say  you've  got 
quite  the  cut  of  a  man  who's  going  there  on 
business." 

"  Oh,  I'm  going  to  kick  up  my  heels,  and  walk 
about,  and  climb  the  mountains,  and  eat  oranges 
and  avocado  pears.  At  intervals  I  shall  play  a 
little  golf." 

"  Delightful  programme.  Nothing  to  do  but 
amuse  yourself.  But  don't  you  get  rather  tired 
of  it  sometimes  ?  " 

"  It  hasn't  bored  me  so  far.  When  a  man's 
had  enough  of  one  thing  he  can  try  another." 

"  That  depends  on  the  man's  income.  It's  an 
expensive  game  ringing  the  changes  too  often." 

"  Well,  I  suppose  it  is,  come  to  think  of  it," 
said  Gilchrist.  "  I  started  the  yachting  mania 
last  summer.  That  came  in  rather  heavy  for  a 
first  outfit  of  materials." 

"Evidently,"  said  Mrs.  White,  with  a  sigh, 
"  you  are  a  young  man  having  many  possessions. 
What  a  blessed  comfort  it  must  be  to  get  away 
from  the  region  of  narrow  means." 

Gilchrist  thought  the  matter  over  at  greater 
length  that  night  when  the  lights  had  been 
switched  off  in  the  smoke-room  and  the  other 
passengers  had  turned  in ;  and  he  came  to  sev 
eral  conclusions.  Above  all  things  he  was  satis 
fied  that  it  was  entirely  without  drawbacks  to 


THE   FASCINATING   MRS.    WHITEHEAD      215 

be  well  off.  He  also  gave  a  good  deal  of  his 
time  to  thinking  over  Mrs.  White.  He  didn't 
quite  know  whether  he  was  in  love  with  her  or 
not ;  he  couldn't  quite  define  what  being  in  love 
meant ;  but  he  was  completely  satisfied  she  was 
the  nicest  woman  on  that  particular  steamer, 
and  possibly  on  many  steamers.  Moreover,  he 
reminded  himself  that  he  was  thirty-two,  and 
was  under  instructions  from  various  relatives 
who  took  an  interest  in  him,  to  get  married 
without  any  further  dawdling  over  it. 

To  think  over  a  matter  of  this  kind,  solus,  at 
sea,  and  under  the  suggestive  stars,  is  a  very 
different  affair  from  doing  the  same  prosaically 
at  home.  Mrs.  White  did  not  turn  up  all  the 
next  morning ;  and  not  caring  for  anybody  else 
on  board,  he  was  bored  with  his  own  society. 
In  the  afternoon  she  was  also  absent,  and  he 
grew  more  bored.  And  in  the  evening,  when 
she  showed  up  again,  he  proposed  in  the  first  ten 
minutes,  out  of  sheer  relief  at  seeing  her  again. 

"  Oh,  and  now  I  am  happy,"  said  Mrs.  White. 

He  kissed  her  a  great  many  times  —  she  had 
an  excellent  method  of  kissing  —  and  they  ar 
ranged  to  get  married  in  three  months'  time  in 
London,  and  spend  the  honeymoon  at  his  shoot 
ing  place  in  Scotland.  "  But  we  won't  let  the 
cat  out  of  the  bag  yet,  dear,"  said  Gilchrist, 
"  and  then  we  can  have  our  fun  in  Las  Palmas 
without  being  pointed  out  and  giving  a  free  comic 
entertainment  to  all  the  other  people." 


216  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

«  No,  darling,"  said  Mrs.  White.  "  We'll  keep 
the  engagement  as  our  own  dear  sweet  secret  till 
we  get  back  to  England." 

But  —  from  what  source  no  one  seemed  ex 
actly  to  know  —  the  little  episode  was  being 
passed  about  the  ship  in  strictly  confidential 
whispers  during  the  very  next  morning  ;  and  by 
midday  everybody  was  chuckling  over  it  and 
ostentatiously  avoiding  stares  ;  and  at  dinner  the 
captain  stood  champagne  all  down  the  tables, 
and  the  health  of  the  pair  of  them  was  drunk 
with  enthusiasm  and  music.  Gilchrist  smiled  as 
he  returned  thanks,  and  tried  not  to  feel  savage ; 
and  the  hard-up  men  who  were  going  down  to 
serve  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  got  drunk 
that  night,  or  mournfully  sentimental,  according 
to  their  natures.  But  they  one  and  all  during 
the  course  of  the  evening  came  and  hit  Gilchrist 
on  the  back  several  times,  and  told  him  what  a 
lucky  chap  he  was ;  and  each  time  Gilchrist 
thanked  them  most  cordially,  and  assured  him 
self  with  unnecessary  emphasis  that  they  were 
undeniably  right. 

When  the  steamer  was  coming  into  Las  Palmas 
harbour,  Mrs.  White  was  examining  with  a  glass 
the  semi-detached  island  which  carries  the  light 
house.  "  They've  taken  it  down,"  said  she. 

Gilchrist  asked  what. 

"  That  staring  white  notice  on  the  hillside 
there.  <  Grand  Canary  Engineering  Company,' 
it  used  to  be." 


THE  FASCINATING  MRS.   WHITEHEAD      217 

"  Oh,  you've  been  here  before,  have  you  ?  I 
didn't  know.  You  never  told  me." 

"Ye-es — didn't  I  tell  you? — at  the  Metropole. 
But  I  shall  stay  at  the  Hotel  Catalina  now." 

"  That  was  before  you  were  left  a  widow  ?  " 

"Oh,  of  course,  my  husband  was  there.  Do 
run  down,  there's  a  dear  boy,  and  make  them 
bring  up  my  boxes.  I  tipped  that  wretched 
steward,  and  he  hasn't  done  it  yet." 

Gilchrist  went  away  below,  and  as  he  had  his 
own  packing  to  finish,  he  did  not  see  an  English 
gentleman  come  off  in  the  doctor's  boat,  greet 
Mrs.  White  very  warmly,  exchange  a  few  words 
with  her,  and  then  return  hurriedly  to  shore  con 
sumed  with  abundant  laughter.  But  he  was  up 
in  time  to  see  the  letters  brought  into  the  saloon 
by  the  shore  agent,  and  to  watch  Mrs.  White 
take  up  a  telegram  most  legibly  addressed  to 
«  Whitehead." 

"  Ah,"  said  Mrs.  White,  with  a  sigh  of  vast 
relief,  "then  it  is  all  right." 

Gilchrist  experienced  a  peculiar  little  thrill. 
The  name  of  Whitehead  carried  recent  memories 
for  him.  It  would  have  done  the  same  for  any 
one  who  had  been  lately  in  England.  So  he 
inquired,  "  What's  all  right  ?  " 

"My  news,"  said  Mrs.  White,  cheerfully. 

"  Mayn't  I  share  them  ?  " 

"  Sure  you  want  to,  dear  ?  " 

"  Of  course,"  said  Gilchrist,  and  hoped  that 
he  was  speaking  in  his  natural  voice. 


218  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

"  It's  all  right,  dear,"  said  his  fiancee.  "  I  can 
marry  you.  I  wasn't  quite  sure  before,  because 
law  is  so  risky,  although  this  was  nearly  a 
certain  thing.  But  they've  wired  me  to  say  that 
we've  got  the  decree  nisi,  so  as  soon  as  the  time's 
run  out " 

"  What !  "  cried  Gilchrist,  "  you're  the  Mrs. 
Whitehead  the  papers  have  been  crammed  with  ? 
Oh  Lord ! "  And  his  mind  galloped  through  a 
ream  of  unrefreshing  details. 

"  I'm  the  lady,"   said  she. 

"  But  I  knew  nothing  of  this." 

«  You  never  asked  me." 

"  Well,  our  little  farce  can't  go  on." 

«  Which,  pray  ?  " 

« Well,  if  you  want  it  in  plainer  words,  my 
engagement  to  you." 

"  Oh,  that's  your  small  game,  is  it  ?  "  said  she, 
smiling  sweetly.  "  Then  I'd  better  see  the  captain 
and  two  or  three  of  the  other  gentlemen  here  at 
once,  and  get  their  evidence  put  down  in  writing." 

Gilchrist  whistled. 

"  You'll  look  after  my  things,  won't  you,  till  I 
come  back  ?  There's  the  purser.  I'll  go  and 
catch  him  before  he's  off  ashore." 

"  Wait  a  minute,"  said  Gilchrist.  «  What  are 
you  after  ?  " 

"Isn't  it  obvious?  Am  I  going  to  have  my 
feelings  tossed  about  in  this  way  ? " 

"  That  means  '  breach  of  promise.'  But  you 
won't  get  it,  you  know." 


THE  FASCINATING  MRS.   WHITEHEAD      219 

"  I  shall  have  a  very  good  try,"  said  madame, 
dryly.  "  You  will  look  after  those  things,  won't 
you,  till  I  go  and  see  the  purser  ?  " 

«  No,  wait  another  minute,  please.  Law's  ex 
pensive,  and  I  should  think  you've  had  enough 
airing  in  the  papers  lately." 

"  On  the  contrary,  so  much,  that  a  little  more 
will  make  no  difference.  In  fact,  it  will  turn  the 
laugh  my  side.  But  as  for  you,  my  dear  boy, 
you're  different.  It  will  come  as  a  refreshing 
novelty." 

"  As  I  say,  law's  uncertain,  and  it's  ten  to  one 
you'd  lose  your  case.  But  look  here,  I've  got  a 
couple  of  hundred  pounds  in  notes.  Will  you 
take  that  and  call  it  quits?" 

"  My  excellent  sir,  the  <  feelings '  are  going  to 
cost  you  a  cool  thousand  if  you  pay  for  them 
now." 

«  Don't  you  wish  you  may  get  it  ?  " 

"  I  don't  very  much  mind,  because  I  shall  ask 
for  ten  thousand  if  we  fight,  and  I  should  very 
much  prefer  to  finger  ten." 

Gilchrist  didn't  swear,  first  because  it  is  rude 
to  swear  before  a  lady,  and  secondly  because  he 
didn't  know  words  enough  to  do  justice  to  the 
occasion.  Instead  he  went  into  the  saloon  and 
wrote  out  a  cheque,  for  which  he  received  a  very 
satisfactory  document  in  return.  Afterwards  he 
went  ashore. 

He  met  Mrs.  White-Whitehead  frequently  dur 
ing  the  ensuing  month  in  Las  Palmas,  and  they 


220  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

always  bowed  to  one  another  most  cordially, 
but  they  never  spoke.  She  was  always  with 
another  man,  and  once,  when  he  went  into  the 
hotel  where  they  were  staying,  he  found  out  the 
other  man's  name.  Then  he  whistled  again, 
most  thoughtfully.  The  name  was  not  new  to 
him.  He  had  read  it  several  times  before,  in  the 
very  same  newspaper  paragraphs  where  he  had 
read  so  much  about  Mrs.  Whitehead. 


XIV 

THE  FIRE 

THE  first-class  carriage  we  were  in  was  heated 
by  steam,  we  had  each  abundance  of  coats  and 
rugs,  our  feet  were  on  a  fresh  foot-warmer,  but 
the  draught  of  the  hurricane  crept  in  by  a  score 
of  chinks,  and  the  vehemence  of  the  cold  made  us 
ache.  At  Doncaster  we  moved  across  to  the 
dining-car,  and  found  that  a  trifle  more  endur 
able  ;  but  still  I  noted  that  Gerard's  moustache 
continued  to  glisten  with  icicles. 

At  Grantham  we  had  still  further  evidence  (if 
such  a  thing  were  needed)  of  the  lowness  of  the 
temperature.  The  express,  which  is  timed  to 
stop  there  only  three  minutes  at  the  outside, 
made  a  wait  that  seemed  interminable.  The 
conductor,  I  saw,  was  getting  uneasy.  At  length 
he  buttoned  his  coat  and  went  out  into  the 
freezing  gale  on  the  platform.  In  a  minute  he 
returned,  purple-cheeked  and  blowing  his  fingers. 
He  came  to  us  with  the  tidings.  Both  driver 
and  stoker  of  our  engine  were,  it  seemed,  half 
perished  with  the  exposure  to  that  bitter  cold ; 
it  was  with  difficulty  they  had  brought  the  ex 
press  to  a  standstill  in  the  station ;  and  they 

221 


222  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

were  utterly  unfit  to  proceed  farther.  It  was 
doubtful,  the  conductor  said,  whether  one  of 
them,  but  I  forget  which  it  was,  would  recover  ; 
and  meanwhile  the  railway  authorities  were  seek 
ing  substitutes  to  take  us  on  to  London.  He 
said,  too,  that  news  had  been  brought  down  of  a 
colossal  fire  in  Hammersmith,  but  could  add  no 
details. 

"  Nice  weather  this  for  getting  married  in," 
said  I ;  "if  we'd  had  warning  of  this  blizzard 
beforehand,  I  should  either  have  shirked  being 
your  best  man,  or  suggested  having  the  affair 
postponed." 

"  If  to-morrow's  like  this,"  said  Gerard,  "  the 
wedding  can't  take  place  till  the  weather  changes. 
It  would  be  brutal  to  drag  any  woman  out  into 
such  a  nipping  cold." 

We  saw  men  filling  the  engine  with  buckets 
from  a  well  outside  the  station,  because  the 
ordinary  water  supply  was  frozen  solid ;  and 
then  the  train  began  to  move  again,  and  slid  out 
of  Grantham  into  the  open  country.  The  south 
westerly  hurricane  beat  upon  it  till  the  flanges 
of  the  lee  wheels  grated  upon  the  rails  with  a 
roar  of  sound  ;  and  in  some  of  the  heavier  squalls 
I  thought  we  should  have  been  upset.  A  queer, 
lurid  light  hung  in  the  sky.  But  with  dogged 
slowness  we  crawled  on,  and  drew  up  under  the 
shelter  of  King's  Cross  station. 

It  was  four  o'clock,  and  we  were  three  hours 
late.  There  was  a  bellow  of  life  from  the  depar- 


THE   FIRE  223 

ture  side  of  the  station.  I  don't  think  I  ever 
heard  such  a  noise  of  trains  and  passengers ;  but 
where  we  were,  the  place  seemed  deserted.  Half 
the  roof  was  off,  and  there  was  not  a  porter  to 
be  seen.  The  platform  was  littered  with  dirty, 
trodden  snow. 

We  got  out,  and  I  noticed  that  there  were  only 
two  other  passengers  in  the  train.  The  conductor 
of  the  diner  put  out  our  luggage,  and  Gerard 
told  him  to  order  a  hansom.  There  was  only 
one  on  the  rank  —  a  thing  that  had  never  been 
known  before  since  King's  Cross  station  was 
built. 

We  got  into  that  lonely  cab,  and  told  the 
muffled  driver  to  take  us  to  Queen's  Gate,  in 
Kensington.  As  the  glass  door  was  clattering 
down,  a  boy  came  out  of  some  sheltered  corner, 
and  thrust  in  a  paper. 

"  Evening  paper,  sir  ?  "  he  cried.  "  There's 
half  Chelsea  on  fire." 

"  Give  him  a  penny,  Methuen,"  said  Gerard. 

"  No,  sir,"  said  the  boy.  "  Five  bob  or  nothing. 
I've  only  two  papers  left,  and  there's  ten  fire 
men  killed.  They  say  half  London  will  be 
burnt." 

I  fumbled  out  two  half-crowns,  and  the  win 
dow  closed  down  with  a  clash,  and  the  cab  drove 
off.  Then  I  bent  my  head  over  the  fluttering 
sheet  and  scanned  the  headlines :  "  Disastrous  fire." 
"Fanned  by  the  furious  gale"  "All  hydrants 
frozen"  "  Every  drop  of  water  in  London  solid 


224  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

ice."  "  Nothing  to  check  the  flames"  "Metropolis 
in  terrible  danger"  "Suicide  of  the  Chief  of  the 
Fire  Brigade" 

The  sky  about  us  was  full  of  driving  black 
ness,  but  a  strange  yellow  glare  hung  beneath 
it,  and  the  print  stood  out  clearly :  — 

"  The  fire  in  Hammersmith,  which  we  reported  in  our 
last  edition,"  I  read,  "  has  since  assumed  gigantic  propor 
tions.  The  united  fire  brigades  of  London  are  helpless 
to  cope  with  it.  The  unprecedented  severity  of  the 
frost,  and  the  fury  of  the  hurricane,  which  is  now  upon 
us,  have  set  at  derision  all  our  vaunted  precautions. 

"It  is  with  water  alone  that  our  fire-extinguishing 
services  have  been  hitherto  armed  to  fight  devouring 
flames ;  and  now  in  this  moment  of  our  desperate  need 
even  a  trickle  of  water  is  denied  them.  They  are  as 
helpless  as  the  lay  citizens. 

"The  fire  in  its  awful  majesty  has  beat  down  all 
resistance.  Hammersmith  is  a  burnt-out  rubbish  heap. 
West  Kensington  is  a  furnace.  Amongst  the  dwellers 
in  South  Kensington  and  Chelsea  there  is  more  panic 
than  an  invading  army  could  produce.  So  far  as  human 
eye  can  see,  nothing  but  a  change  of  wind  or  an  act  of 
God  can  save  the  greatest  city  ever  built  by  man  from 
being  in  the  next  few  hours  changed  to  twisted,  smoking 
ruins." 

Gerard  dropped  the  paper  with  a  cry  of  horror, 
and  thrust  up  the  hatch.  "  A  fiver  if  you  keep 
your  horse  at  a  gallop,"  he  shouted  to  the  cab 
man.  "  My  God,  Methuen,"  he  said  to  me, 
"  what  an  awful  thing  this  is ! " 

"  The  newspaper  has  made  the  worst  of  it  for 
the  sake  of  the  sensation,"  I  answered.  "  Lon- 


THE   FIRE  225 

don  is  not  built  of  wood ;  it  is  an  impossible 
thing  for  the  whole  of  it  to  burn." 

"  I'm  thinking  of  Queen's  Gate,  and  my  little 
girl  there.  She'll  have  expected  me  three  hours 
ago,  and  I'm  here  now." 

The  cab  stopped  with  a  jar  against  the  curb. 
I  scraped  the  frost  rime  from  a  window,  and 
peered  out.  Five  great  dray-loads  of  household 
goods  were  coming  thundering  past  us,  with  the 
horses  at  a  gallop.  We  got  beyond  them,  and 
entered  Piccadilly.  The  street  was  one  solid 
block  of  every  imaginable  kind  of  vehicle,  bear 
ing  salvage  and  fugitives  eastwards.  With  infi 
nite  trouble,  our  cabman  wormed  his  way  across 
the  struggling  mass,  and  tried  to  take  us  on  our 
road  by  the  smaller  streets  to  southward ;  but 
these  were  one  and  all  brim-filled  by  the  traffic, 
or  blocked  by  broken-down  vehicles. 

Gerard's  impatience  grew  too  great  to  be  held 
in  check  any  longer.  He  sprang  from  the  cab, 
gave  the  man  a  ten-pound  note,  with  orders  to 
follow  as  best  he  could,  and  started  off  through 
the  hurrying  crowds  on  foot. 

Then  for  the  first  time  we  began  fully  to  realise 
the  fright  which  had  bitten  into  five  millions  of 
people.  The  most  orderly  city  on  earth  had 
turned  into  a  seething  nest  of  anarchy.  Even 
the  police  made  no  effort  to  quell  the  terror  or 
curb  its  lashings :  they  had  their  own  houses 
and  their  own  lives  to  think  about.  And  as 
we  went  on,  with  the  gale  beating  in  our  faces, 
Q 


226  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

we  ourselves  became  smitten  with  the  prevailing 
spirit. 

We  jostled  and  thrust  at  every  one  that  came  in 
our  way ;  we  climbed  over  broken-down  loads  of 
rarities  which  lay  in  the  roadways  as  though  they 
had  been  so  much  coal.  Three  times  I  saw  bodies 
lying  motionless  in  my  path,  and  the  passers-by 
cursed  as  they  stumbled  against  them,  but  no 
one  stopped  to  help. 

And  once  I  saw  a  woman  of  elegant  dress, 
who  was  driving  a  landau  filled  with  trunks 
and  boxes,  drop  the  reins  when  a  heavy  dray 
cut  off  one  of  her  wheels,  and  pull  out  a  pistol 
and  kill  herself  before  a  thousand  lookers-on. 
But  no  one  gave  her  more  than  a  cursory  glance. 
Each  one  looked  ahead  on  his  own  path,  and 
hurried  away  about  his  business,  wrestling  and 
thrusting  amongst  the  others.  And  every  minute 
the  crush  thickened,  and  every  by-street  vomited 
people. 

The  air  grew  warmer  as  we  pressed  on  west 
wards.  There  was  no  glimpse  of  flame  apparent 
yet ;  nothing  but  fat,  black  rolls  of  smoke  could 
be  seen  overhead,  with  an  underlining  of  yellow 
reflected  from  the  distant  blaze.  And  everywhere 
hung  icicles,  and  the  lines  of  the  bursted  water- 
mains  glistened  in  the  roadways.  We  were  in 
an  Arctic  city  more  like  St.  Petersburg  than  the 
London  we  had  known  before. 

There  was  the  taint  of  burning  in  every  breath 
we  drew,  and  from  the  inky  sky  above  fell  a 


THE  FIRE  227 

constant  patter  of  charred  embers.  As  we  drew 
on,  these  embers  grew  bright,  and  by  the  time  we 
were  through  Brompton  (and  seven  had  clanged 
out  from  some  clock  in  the  neighbourhood),  live 
sparks  were  falling  on  the  seething  mobs  in  the 
streets,  and  the  air  grew  sour  with  the  smell  of 
singeing  cloth. 

But  by  the  time  we  got  abreast  of  the  South 
Kensington  Museum,  the  glow  of  the  flames  was 
beginning  to  smear  more  lurid  yellows  against  the 
amorphous  black  of  the  driving  smoke  clouds ; 
and  soon  the  thunder  of  the  blaze  and  the  crash 
of  the  trundling  masonry  came  to  us  in  a  dim 
roar  above  the  booming  and  swishing  of  the  gale. 
The  great  warren  of  dwelling-houses  to  westward 
of  us  yielded  up  its  thousand  emigrants  every 
minute.  The  fugitives  had  started  out  of  home 
hugging  their  dearest  possessions ;  but  the  din  of 
that  awful  enemy  which  was  sacking  the  city  at 
their  heels  thrust  terror  into  their  hearts ;  and 
they  had  it  taught  them  that  to  each  one  naked 
life  is  dearer  than  all  else  the  world  contains.  So 
the  streets  were  paved  with  the  cream  of  the 
household  goods,  and  we  smashed  with  our  feet 
a  Jew's  ransom  with  every  mile  we  went. 

The  fire  was  advancing  whole  streets  by  the 
hour.  Earl's  Court  was  already  half  burnt  out ; 
the  houses  in  a  line  with  Cornwall  Gardens  and 
Emperor's  Gate  were  beginning  to  yield  up  trickles 
of  fire  through  their  windows.  The  bright  scoriae 
from  the  volcano  of  fire  fell  around  and  on  us 


228  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

more  thickly  as  we  pressed  on.  The  mob 
thinned  as  we  drew  towards  the  seat  of  the  blaze, 
and  when  we  turned  up  Queen's  Gate,  the  street, 
though  half  filled  by  furniture  and  d&ris,  was 
almost  deserted  by  human  beings.  The  popula 
tion  had  fled  already.  The  gale  was  sending  the 
flames  horizontally,  like  the  jet  from  a  blow-pipe, 
across  the  house-tops. 

Gerard  by  this  time  was  nearly  beside  himself 
with  anxiety  and  foreboding.  But  at  last  we 
reached  the  house,  and  Gerard  dashed  up  the 
steps.  The  girl  whom  that  morning  he  had 
thought  to  make  his  bride  within  the  next  thirty 
hours  stood  waiting  for  him  in  the  doorway. 

"  Oh,  my  love,"  I  heard  her  say,  as  she  leant 
on  his  shoulder,  "  I  am  here  alone.  They  have 
all  gone.  But  you  said  you  would  come  for  me  ; 
and  I  knew  you  would  if  you  were  alive  ;  and  if 
you  were  not,  I  did  not  wish  to  live  either." 

But  meanwhile  the  heat  was  growing  upon  us, 
and  whilst  I  stood  and  watched,  I  saw  flames 
beginning  to  spout  from  the  upper  windows  of  a 
house  near  the  Cromwell  Road. 

A  swirl  of  smoke  came  up  and  stung  my  eyes 
like  nettles.  "  Look,"  I  said,  "  we  must  go.  This 
house  will  be  burning  in  another  ten  minutes ; " 
and  at  the  word  Miss  Vivian  picked  up  a  jewel- 
case  from  a  table  in  the  hall,  and  came  with 
Gerard  down  the  steps.  We  were  walking 
quickly  northwards,  and  as  we  were  passing 
Queen's  Gate  Terrace  a  man  joined  us  whom  I 


THE  FIRE  229 

knew.  His  name  is  an  old  and  honoured  one, 
but  I  omit  it  here  for  the  sake  of  others  who 
have  borne  the  title. 

"  Oh  !  "  he  cried,  «  I  am  beggared  !  Fifty-five 
and  beggared  !  What  is  that  you  have  ?  "  said 
he.  "  Jewels  ?  "  He  snatched  the  morocco  box 
from  Miss  Vivian's  hands.  "  I  must  have  some 
thing  !  "  he  cried.  "  I  refuse  to  starve."  And  he 
ran  off  howling. 

A  van  stood  in  the  roadway,  with  horses 
trembling  and  snorting.  "  The  law  is  dead,"  I 
said.  "  Every  man  takes  what  he  wants  now. 
Jump  in." 

My  friend  and  his  promised  wife  got  under  the 
tilt  of  the  van,  away  from  the  fiery  shower  which 
was  raining  on  us,  and  I  mounted  the  box.  The 
horses  sprang  away  at  a  gallop.  At  the  end  of  the 
road  was  a  tangled  block.  The  furniture  of  two 
houses  had  been  pitched  out  helter-skelter,  and 
lay  there  in  wild  confusion.  A  hansom  had  tried 
to  cross  it,  and  the  horse  had  broken  a  leg,  and 
lay  deserted,  and  moving  feebly.  But  it  was  no 
time  for  hesitation.  I  charged  my  team  at  the 
barrier,  and  with  a  crash  and  a  bang  and  a  rattle 
we  were  over. 

We  crossed  the  Knightsbridge  Road,  and  en 
tered  Kensington  Gardens  by  the  Queen's  Gate. 
A  water  main  had  burst  in  the  middle  of  the 
roadway,  and  thrust  up  an  ice-fountain  twenty 
feet  in  height.  I  headed  across .  for  the  Marble 
Arch,  intending  to  get  to  one  of  the  railway 


230  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

stations,  where  we  could  run  away  north  out  of 
this  horrible  city  of  fire  and  terror. 

But  before  we  were  half-way  across  the  parks 
the  scent  of  fire  came  to  us  anew,  and  the  horses 
began  to  snort  with  fresh  terror.  Bayswater  was 
blazing,  Paddington  was  on  fire,  and  soon  the 
fingers  of  the  flames  would  be  seizing  Oxford 
Street  in  their  awful  grip.  There  seemed  no 
chance  of  a  respite.  The  gale  raged  more  furi 
ously  than  ever.  I  turned  and  made  for  Hyde 
Park  Corner,  and  as  we  drove  I  saw  no  fewer 
than  ten  huge  trees  crash  down  before  the  strain 
ing  of  the  wind. 

But  past  Hyde  Park  Corner  I  could  get  the 
van  no  farther.  The  roadways  were  piled  up  to 
the  doors  of  the  houses  on  either  side  with  a  mass 
of  vehicles,  and  alive  with  madly  plunging  horses. 
Never  was  known  such  a  scene  since  the  world 
began.  And  there  they  were  doomed  to  wait, 
in  .that  inextricable  tangle,  till  the  flames  swept 
up  and  ground  them  into  smoke. 

We  deserted  our  van,  and  hand-in-hand  we 
skirted  that  awful  block.  We  rounded  Bucking 
ham  Palace  Gardens,  and  got  down  to  Victoria 
Street ;  but  that  was  impassable,  and  we  were 
forced  to  make  our  way  through  unconsidered 
by-paths  where  the  crowds  were  less  densely 
wedged. 

Only  once  was  our  slow  struggle  onward  in 
terrupted.  Of  a  sudden  the  air  was  split  by  a 
terrific  roar ;  another  followed ;  and  another. 


THE   FIEE  231 

The  pavement  beneath  us  shook,  and  the  tall 
houses  on  either  side  shed  dust.  The  gale  for  a 
moment  stopped  ;  then  hit  us  with  a  fresh  blast 
which  there  was  no  standing  against ;  and  then  a 
tornado  of  dust  and  fragments  swept  down  so 
thick  that  we  could  barely  catch  a  breath.  They 
were  blowing  up  a  line  of  houses  along  the  fore 
front  of  the  fire,  in  the  desperate  hope  that  the 
flames  would  not  leap  the  gap. 

The  crowd  realised  what  had  happened,  and 
began  to  surge  onward  again.  We  fought  our 
way  along  in  its  eddies.  The  exertion  was  some 
thing  fearful,  and  for  long  enough  I  struggled  on 
like  a  man  in  a  dream,  with  one  hand  dragging 
at  Miss  Vivian,  and  the  other  wrestling  with  the 
people  who  thronged  us.  By  a  sort  of  dull 
instinct  I  was  heading  for  the  eastward.  Hours 
must  have  passed  —  though  they  seemed  like 
years  —  and  when  my  weariness  had  grown  so 
great  that  it  seemed  I  could  not  drag  myself  a 
yard  farther,  I  became  dimly  conscious  that  we 
were  in  Northumberland  Avenue. 

By  a  sort  of  natural  impulse,  and  without  a 
word  being  said,  we  turned  into  the  Metropole. 
The  hall  of  the  hotel  was  filled  with  a  rabble 
which  would  have  done  credit  to  the  Ratcliffe 
Highway,  and  I  dully  wondered  what  they  were 
doing  there.  But  then  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  my 
own  self  in  a  mirror.  My  clothes  were  burnt 
full  of  holes ;  with  the  smoke  and  the  falling  soot 
I  was  black  as  a  man  who  had  worked  a  week 


232  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

in  coal ;  I  looked  a  greater  outcast  than  any  of 
them. 

It  seemed  useless  to  ask  for  a  room  ;  in  fact, 
there  were  no  officials  visible ;  each  bedroom  was 
overflowing,  and  in  the  corridors  the  grimy  tenants 
made  a  human  carpet.  At  length,  up  in  the  attics 
(where  fewer  of  the  crowd  had  dared  to  go  through 
dread  of  the  fire)  we  found  a  tiny  room  with  only 
half  a  dozen  occupants.  Miss  Vivian  shared  the 
bed  with  two  other  women,  and  Gerard  and  I 
threw  ourselves  on  the  floor  and  huddled  against 
the  others  for  warmth. 

Sour-mouthed  from  want  of  sleep,  I  woke  to 
the  tune  of  splintering  glass.  Once  more  the  fire 
was  upon  us.  The  gap  of  blown-up  houses  had 
done  nothing  to  check  its  march.  We  roused  the 
sleepers,  and  rushed  to  the  stairways.  Gleaming 
ice  lay  everywhere  in  the  track  of  the  bursted 
water-pipes.  The  wind  shook  the  great  building 
as  we  ran  towards  the  entrance,  and  the  roar  of 
the  advancing  fire  re-echoed  in  the  passages.  A 
torrent  of  humanity  was  pouring  out  into  North 
umberland  Avenue. 

But  I  had  no  wish  that  we  should  be  driven 
farther  eastward  in  that  frightened  sheep-pack 
before  the  wolves  of  flame.  Retreat  to  the  north 
was  barred  ;  we  must  get  to  the  Surrey  side  ;  we 
must  run  somehow  from  this  horrible  city,  where 
each  in  his  blind  terror  was  trampling  down  his 
neighbour. 

We  thrust  our  way  through  the  crowds  into 


THE  FIRE  233 

Charing  Cross  Station,  but  the  press  was  so 
great  that  the  lines  were  blocked  with  writhing 
humanity,  and  no  train  could  get  in  across  the 
bridge.  Then  a  thought  occurred  to  me :  The 
river  was  frozen,  and  we  could  make  passage 
across  the  ice.  We  struggled  back  again,  getting 
to  the  Embankment  by  Villiers  Street,  and  feel 
ing  the  breath  of  the  advancing  flames  hot  upon 
our  faces.  We  went  down  the  steps  by  Cleopatra's 
Needle,  and  got  on  the  frozen  surface  without  so 
much  as  a  shoe  wet.  Under  that  intense  frost 
even  the  tide  of  the  Thames  could  not  keep  a 
patch  of  open  water. 

There  were  thousands  of  other  people  with  us 
on  the  ice,  and  with  them  we  made  our  way 
across  to  the  southern  bank.  The  buildings  there 
had  escaped  the  conflagration,  and  stood  out  in 
cold  black  silhouette  against  the  windy  sky. 
Men  were  standing  on  the  white  roofs  to  keep 
any  flying  embers  from  finding  a  lodgment.  But 
of  the  other  side,  which  we  had  left,  who  could 
put  in  mere  words  the  grandeur  and  awfulness 
of  the  sight  which  it  presented  then  ?  It  seemed 
as  though  the  great  city  had  been  first  gripped 
by  a  polar  winter,  and  was  now  being  snatched 
back  again  by  the  powers  of  hell.  And 
against  that  raid,  human  resistance  was  a  puny 
derision. 

Chelsea  yielded  now  only  a  thin  smoke ;  the 
Houses  of  Parliament  and  Westminster  were 
skeletons  outlined  in  flame.  The  Clock  Tower 


234  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

was  a  great  torch,  lighting  heaven.  Whitehall 
was  a  furnace,  where  yellows  and  reds  struggled 
for  the  mastery,  and  no  trace  of  building  could  be 
seen.  The  great  hotels  of  Northumberland  Avenue, 
and  the  National  Gallery  beyond,  were  oozing 
reek  and  fire.  And  the  drift  of  burning  fragments 
drove  over  the  icy  roofs  in  front  of  the  fire,  and 
lit  two  score  new  streets  every  hour. 

We  watched  on  as  the  blaze  drove  eastwards, 
and  saw  it  bite  the  end  of  the  Strand,  and  then 
from  the  great  shelter  of  Charing  Cross  Station 
there  came  a  stream  of  shrieks  which  made  us 
shudder.  That,  too,  had  been  ravished  by  the 
flames,  and  of  the  thousands  within  it,  all  who 
could  not  escape  were  being  baked  alive,  or 
crushed  by  the  falling  roof. 

But  meanwhile  the  freezing  gale  sweeping 
down  the  reaches  of  the  river  was  nipping  us 
with  a  more  real  kind  of  chill,  and  I  saw  that 
Miss  Vivian  was  almost  fainting  with  the  expos 
ure.  Gerard  said  we  must  try  and  find  some 
shelter,  so  we  got  ashore  through  a  merchant's 
yard,  and  made  our  way  to  the  Waterloo  Road. 
This,  too,  was  crammed  with  fugitives,  but  the 
terrifying  scent  of  the  fire  was  farther  away,  and 
the  retreat  was  more  orderly.  We  found  a  cab, 
and  had  nearly  chartered  it  when  two  other  men 
came  up  and  bid  against  us.  But  we  had  the 
more  gold,  and  the  ride  was  ours.  We  were 
driven  away  to  Dulwich,  where  Gerard  had 
friends. 


THE  FIRE  235 

And  that  is  the  last  I  saw  of  the  actual  burn 
ing  of  London.  We  were  bruised,  all  three  of  us, 
from  face  to  foot ;  we  were  badly  scorched  in 
many  places ;  we  were  bone- weary  ;  and  once  a 
hospitable  door  closed  behind  us,  our  limbs 
stiffened,  and  we  were  incapable  of  further  strug 
gle.  For  five  awful  days  the  fire  strode  on  and 
gutted  the  whole  of  the  City  and  almost  all 
North  London ;  and  the  glare  of  it  was  seen  on 
the  Cheviot  Hills. 

It  turned  into  crumbling  ruins  the  Bank  of 
England  and  the  Tower ;  it  blasted  out  of  exist 
ence  the  slums  which  lie  between  Wapping  High 
Street  and  the  Mile  End  Road.  It  burnt  the 
shipping  and  the  warehouses,  the  shops,  and  the 
offices,  the  private  dwellings,  and  the  wooden 
pavement  of  the  streets ;  and  by  one  means  and 
another  it  had  caused  the  death  of  five  hundred 
thousand  of  the  population. 

Yes ;  half  a  million  human  beings  perished  in 
that  awful  tornado  of  flame,  or  died  of  the  sub 
sequent  exposure  and  want ;  three  thousand 
thousand  were  changed  from  householders  into 
homeless  outcasts ;  but  figures  will  give  no  idea 
of  the  vast  amount  of  property  that  was  blotted 
out  of  existence.  Not  only  was  solid,  visible 
wealth  wafted  away  in  smoke,  but  that  mysteri 
ous  asset,  paper  money,  shrank  from  milliards 
into  nothingness.  The  national  credit  was 
blasted,  and  the  bourses  of  the  outside  world 
were  smitten  to  their  foundations.  Civilisation 


236  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

has  received  no  such  shock  since  old  Atlantis 
sank  beneath  the  ocean  waves. 

And  now  we  are  face  to  face  with  the  result. 
The  awe-struck  outer  world  has  recovered  its 
self-possession ;  we  are  still  paralysed.  The 
starving  hordes  of  London  have  spread  over  the 
whole  face  of  the  fair  land,  and  our  towns  bristle 
with  riot.  The  other  nations,  forgetting  their 
momentary  pity,  remember  only  their  old  hate. 
Shameful  treaties  are  thrust  upon  us.  Our  colo 
nies  are  being  invaded.  Trade  has  been  reft  from 
us.  We  are  a  nation  with  a  glorious  history,  but 
no  future. 

New  Chicago  arose  like  a  phoenix  from  the  ashes 
of  the  old.  But  our  London  was  no  flimsy  place 
of  wooden  joists  and  weather-boarding.  It  was 
a  monument  of  centuries,  and  the  nation  is  too 
heart-sick  to  begin  again  to  build  it  on  the  old 
scale.  The  Government  sits  at  Manchester,  and 
the  world  mocks  at  it. 

In  the  hour  of  our  pride  we  boasted  that  no 
nation  on  earth  could  lay  us  low.  But  the  ele 
ments  were  set  to  war  against  our  might,  and 
they  have  humbled  the  British  Empire  even  unto 
the  ground. 


XV 

THE  KID 


THE  birth  of  the  Kid  into  our  world  took 
place  when  she  had  already  run  through  eight 
years  of  existence  elsewhere.  The  method  of 
her  arrival  was  curious,  being  free  from  the 
usual  formalities.  The  date  was  coincident  with 
young  Fairbairn's  twenty-first  birthday. 

At  that  period  young  Fairbairn  was,  during 
term-time,  gracing  Cambridge  with  his  presence, 
and  occupied  the  official  position  of  cox  in  the 
Hall  second  boat.  He  was  rather  a  bumptious 
youth,  and  to  make  memorable  the  day  on  which 
he  could  legally  commence  to  ruin  himself  finan 
cially  without  let  or  hindrance,  he  decided  on  a 
small,  but  very  select,  stag  dinner  party.  The 
time  being  Long  Vac.,  and  his  own  bachelor 
mSnage  sketchy,  the  feed  took  place  at  the  Mid 
land  Hotel  down  at  home,  where  they  do  things 
very  well  if  you  only  know  how  to  give  an  order. 
But  this  is  long  ago. 

Trains  from  Ilkley  being  awkward,  Carnegie 
and  I  happened  to  land  in  half  an  hour  before  we 

237 


238  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

were  due,  and  as  no  one  was  about,  we  strolled 
to  the  smoke-room  bar  and  chatted  over  sherry 
and  bitters. 

From  this  occupation  we  were  summoned  by 
a  waiter,  who  informed  us  that  young  Fairbairn 
was  in  a  private  sitting-room  and  desired  audience 
of  us.  The  waiter's  manner  was  constrained,  and 
we  judged  that  he  had  been  having  things  said 
to  him,  because  he  found  occasion  to  remark 
quite  irrelevantly  that  young  Fairbairn  was  a 
"  most  remarkable  fancy  gentleman." 

We  found  him  fuming  and  profane.  He 
spoke  of  taking  legal  proceedings  against  a  large 
railway  company,  which  is  always  an  insane  thing 
to  do,  even  for  a  grown  man.  He  held  that  the 
railway  company  kept  a  hotel,  and  under  the 
Publicans  Act  were  bound  to  supply  shelter  and 
victual  to  any  one  soever  from  whom  due  pay 
ment  was  forthcoming.  At  that  period  of  his 
career,  young  Fairbairn  looked  forward  to  taking 
up  the  Law  Special  after  he  had  passed  his 
General,  and  consequently  spoke  upon  matters 
legal  with  all  the  confidence  of  a  vast  and  sweep 
ing  ignorance. 

"...  And  so  I  had  the  manager  up,"  said  he, 
at  the  end  of  the  indictment,  "and  told  him 
straight  what  I  thought,  and  that,  confound  it, 
if  she  couldn't  go  into  the  restaurant,  I'd  have 
another  private  room  and  feed  her  there.  '  By 
gum,'  I  said  to  him,  '  what's  the  use  of  a  man's 
coming  of  age  unless  he  can  do  as  he  likes  ? ' 


THE  KID  239 

And  now,  what  do  you  men  think  of  her  ?  There 
she  is." 

He  waved  his  hand  towards  a  small  girl  who 
sat  in  the  farther  angle  of  the  room,  and  we 
grouped  ourselves  round  the  fireplace,  and  lit 
cigarettes  and  examined  her. 

Her  age  we  were  vague  about  then,  but  after 
wards  it  was  estimated  at  eight  years.  She  wore 
one  visible  garment,  like  a  potato  sack  with  the 
largest  hole  down  the  hill ;  and  because  she  sat 
well  back  in  the  chair,  her  feet  and  shins  projected 
out  of  it  like  pink  sledge  runners.  Her  features 
were  coyly  veiled  by  an  ample  grime  of  dirt, 
and  her  hair  was  ratty  and  tangled,  but  we  could 
guess  at  it  as  dark  brown.  Her  eyes  were  dark 
brown  also ;  there  was  no  doubt  about  them ; 
they  were  large,  dog-like  eyes  with  scare  in  them 
and  some  pitifulness.  I  believe  it  was  those  eyes 
which  caught  young  Fairbairn's  notice  in  the 
first  instance. 

The  man  of  the  evening  waved  his  hand  again. 
u  I've  bought  that  Kid,"  said  he. 

His  manner  was  comically  solemn,  and  our 
grin  was  a  little  constrained.  Carnegie  asked  if 
his  purchase  was  a  freak,  or  if  there  was  a  solid 
reason  for  it. 

"  There  was  reason,  sir  —  lumps  of  it.  I  was 
slumming  down  Swinegate  this  afternoon,  because 
there  are  china  shops  there  and  I'd  got  some 
money  I  wanted  to  spend.  That  Kid  begged  of 
me,  and  I  told  her  to  get  out  of  my  way  and  go 


240  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

to  the  devil.  Afterwards,  when  I  was  flattening 
my  nose  against  a  shop  window,  I  saw  a  man 
hitting  her  over  the  head  with  his  shut  fist.  Now 
perhaps  you  chaps  will  think  I  was  a  fool,  but 
I  suddenly  hankered  to  lick  that  man.  The  only 
drawback  was  that  I  obviously  couldn't.  He  was 
mostly  size  and  brawn  —  a  navvy  when  he  chose 
to  work,  I  guess  —  and  I'm  —  well,  you  see  I  was 
coxing  our  Two  last  Mays,  and  I  had  to  train 
down.  Diplomacy  was  the  only  ticket,  so  I 
offered  him  sixpence  to  dry  up. 

"  He  took  it  like  a  missionary  box,  and  the 
Kid  stood  on  one  side  and  rubbed  her  head. 
She  didn't  howl,  didn't  even  snivel ;  which  was 
plucky.  She  only,  as  I  said,  rubbed  the  places 
where  she  was  bumped. 

"  The  man  fobbed  the  sixpence,  laughed,  and 
looked  like  going.  Then  he  changed  his  mind 
and  asked  why  I'd  tipped  him.  I  told  him 
candidly  enough  that  I  did  it  as  an  alternative  to 
thrashing  him.  I  did  want  very  much  to  hurt 
that  man.  If  I'd  had  a  pistol,  I  should  probably 
have  shot  him  —  in  the  leg,  say.  You  know,  you 
men,  I  never  could  bear  to  see  dogs  and  cats  and 
animals  smashed  about,  and  I  suppose  it  must  be 
the  same  when  one  looks  on  at  a  kid  getting 
battered.  But  I  didn't  know  that  before. 

" '  Look  here,  guv'nor,'  says  the  man,  <  what's 
that  'ere  Kid  to  you  ?  Just  you  tell  me 
that  ? '  He  didn't  mean  to  be  truculent.  He 
was  apparently  asking  a  question  out  of  mild 


THE   KID  241 

curiosity.  I  replied  by  sketching  out  the  dog 
theory. 

"  <  And  supposing  guv'nor,'  says  the  chap,  <  as 
you  saw  a  bloke  a-haggling  off  the  'ind-leg  of  a 
dawg  with  a  meat-saw  just  for  a  bit  of  sport, 
what  'ud  you  do  ?  ' 

"  '  Kill  him,'  said  I,  promptly,  '  if  I  could.' 

" '  You  dam'  little  spitfire,'  says  the  man. 
1  And  supposin'  'e  wasn't  a  shrimp  like  some 
folks  is,  and  'e  said  'e'd  see  you  blowed,  and 
went  on  with  'is  bit  o'  sport,  what'd  you  do 
then  ? ' 

"  '  Buy  the  dog.' 

«  '  Buy  the  dawg !  Phew  !  That's  yer  little 
game,  is  it?  Well,  I  wonder  if  you'd  like  to 
spend  your  money  on  other  live  stock.  That 
'ere  gal  'as  to  be  corrected  for  the  good  of  her 
manners.  When  she  don't  arn  me  coppers,  she 
arns  a  whackin'  for  herself.  And  if  she  stays  on 
being  my  gal,  I'm  going  to  treat  her  to  another 
whackin'  just  about  now.  But  I'm  open  to  a  bid.' 

"  <  What's  your  price  ?  ' 

"  <  'Arf  a  crown.' 

"  '  There's  your  money.' 

" '  And  a  gallon  of  beer.' 

"  <  Well,  you  brute,  I'll  give  you  that  as  well, 
and  I  hope  you'll  get  drunk  and  hit  a  bobby 
and  get  run  in.  But  that's  all  you'll  squeeze 
out  of  me,  and  if  you  won't  part  with  the  Kid 
for  that,  you  and  she  can  go  to  the  devil  your 
own  way.' 


242  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

"  <  Guv'nor,'  said  the  man,  <  'and  over.  The 
Kid's  yours,  bones  and  soul ;  and  much  good  may 
she  do  you.' 

"And  so,"  young  Fairbairn  concluded,  defiantly, 
"  I  picked  up  a  stray  hansom  and  brought  her 
along  here ;  and  now  I'm  wondering  what  on 
earth  I'm  going  to  do  with  her." 

The  child  on  the  chair  was  picking  chocolate 
almonds  out  of  a  large  white  satin-covered  box, 
peering  at  us  intently  with  those  large  dog's  eyes 
as  she  ate.  She  reminded  one  of  some  wild 
animal  feeding  for  the  first  time  in  captivity. 

The  three  other  men  of  the  party  had  joined 
us  by  this,  and  one  of  them  delivered  himself  of 
an  opinion. 

"  A  stray  dog,"  said  this  Solon,  "  you  can  shoot, 
or  give  away  if  you  know  of  any  one  Juggins 
enough  to  take  him ;  a  mongrel  kid's  different. 
No  one  would  have  an  apparition  like  that  for 
a  present,  and  there's  a  prejudice  against  the 
shooting  remedy  as  applied  to  this  sort.  Tell 
you  what  it  is,  old  man :  there's  nothing  for  it, 
now  you  have  got  her,  except  adopting  the  Kid 
yourself.  She's  too  old  for  daughter,  but  you 
might  call  her  your  aunt.  Men  do  have  juvenile 
aunts." 

This  was  intended  for  humour.  The  idea  of 
any  undergraduate  adopting  any  child  was  so 
outrageous  that  we  howled  at  the  funniness 
of  it.  The  day  before,  young  Fairbairn  would 
have  laughed  too ;  but  now  his  infancy  had 


THE   KID  243 

passed  from  him,  and  full  of  a  new  and  gro 
tesque  dignity,  he  chose  to  resent  our  scoffings. 

"  I  say,  you  men,"  he  drawled  out,  "  you're 
rather  brutes,  you  know.  Besides,  the  Kid's 
probably  listening.  I  believe  they  understand. 
And,  by  the  way,  don't  call  me  Youngun." 

We  sobered  down  a  little,  and  Carnegie  re 
marked  that  it  was  dinner-time,  and  that  we'd 
better  pack  her  off  to  the  workhouse. 

"  Workhouse  ?  "  said  Fairbairn,  thoughtfully. 
"  The  workhouse  is  a  rather  awful  sort  of  hole, 
isn't  it  ?  What  'ud  they  do  with  the  Kid  there  ?  " 

"  Wash  it,  dress  it,  feed  it,  and  teach  it,"  said 
Carnegie.  "  At  the  age  of  about  thirteen  it  would 
matriculate  into  usefulness,  probably  as  general 
slavey  to  a  small  tradesman." 

"  Doesn't  sound  very  choice,"  said  young  Fair- 
bairn,  thoughtfully. 

"Standards  differ,"  remarked  Carnegie,  dryly. 
"  If  that  Kid  were  turned  into  the  humblest  of 
slaveys,  it  would  be  promotion  from  her  present 
point  of  view." 

Here  a  waiter  came  in,  announcing  that  dinner 
was  ready.  Young  Fairbairn  wanted  to  stay  and 
discuss  the  matter  further ;  but  we  pointed  out  to 
him  that  it  was  a  rudeness  to  his  guests  which  we 
couldn't  allow  him  to  commit  on  any  terms,  and 
so  we  trooped  off,  leaving  instructions  that  the 
Kid  should  also  dine,  in  the  seclusion  of  the 
sitting-room  hired  for  her. 

The  dinner  was  distinctly  gorgeous,  and  the 


244  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

blue-and-gold  menus  had  crests  on  them,  enam 
elled  in  three  colours.  We  were  given  seven  dif 
ferent  kinds  of  wine  and  four  liqueurs  during 
dinner,  and  four  wines  after,  and  eighty-year-old 
cognac  with  the  coffee.  Barbaric  splendour  of 
this  variety,  particularly  when  taken  internally, 
induces  generosity  which  one  sometimes  repents 
of  afterwards. 

Young  Fairbairn  held  that  the  Parcae  had 
picked  that  Kid  from  the  gutter  to  become  a 
power  in  the  land,  and  we  all  quite  agreed  with 
him.  It  was  suggested  that  one  of  the  barmaids 
should  take  her  in  charge  to  inculcate  personal 
cleanliness  and  the  use  of  shoes  without  further 
delay ;  but  because  you  cannot  tip  a  bar-maiden, 
we  fell  back  on  the  services  of  a  chambermaid  for 
this  purpose.  Having  taken  that  first  step,  we 
set  about  plotting  schemes  of  education  and 
upbringing  for  the  Kid,  each  man  speaking  con 
fidently  from  the  depths  of  his  own  profound 
inexperience.  Finally,  not  being  able  to  agree, 
we  got  affectionate,  and  left  details  entirely  in 
the  hands  of  young  Fairbairn.  As  a  preliminary 
we  handed  round  the  hat,  making  up  in  I.O.U.'s 
and  currency  a  matter  of  fifty  pounds.  This 
would  not  cover  the  entire  expenses  of  even  the 
cheapest  of  the  schemes  propounded,  but  there 
was  a  sort  of  dim  understanding  that  young 
Fairbairn  would  provide  the  balance  out  of  his 
own  privy  purse.  After  this  I  fancy  we  went 
to  bed. 


THE  KID  245 

H 

From  the  undergraduate  standpoint  there  was 
nothing  disgraceful  in  the  trifle  which,  early  in 
the  next  October,  cut  short  young  Fairbairn's 
career  of  usefulness  at  Cambridge.  Anglicised, 
it  may  pithily  be  spoken  of  as  « rioting  with  a 
view  to  the  destruction  of  public  monuments" 
(to  wit,  lamp-posts).  But  the  deed  in  itself  did 
not  prove  his  additional  fitness  to  remain  as 
guardian  to  the  Kid.  And  for  that  matter  the 
ramifications  of  his  subsequent  insanities  before 
the  public  eye  here  in  England  were  even  less 
assuring.  He  piled  up  a  reputation  for  wildness 
which  was  little  short  of  majestic  in  its  weight, 
and  he  ran  through  a  fourth-rate  fortune  as 
though  it  were  merely  pocket  money. 

Yet  no  one  took  away  from  him  his  guardian 
ship.  Perhaps  no  one  wanted  to.  The  only 
other  persons  in  the  world  who  could  feel  the 
least  interest  in  the  Kid's  welfare  were  we  five 
others  who  had  sat  at  meat  with  him  on  that 
day  of  the  Kid's  new  birth ;  and  none  of  us 
moved.  Perhaps  we  could  not  summon  up  suf 
ficient  interest ;  perhaps  we  feared  to  be  let  in 
for  further  expense. 

Still,  it  must  be  owned  that,  though  the 
Youngun  did  finger  his  own  affairs  with  the 
unwisdom  of  the  wild  ass,  he  showed  sanity 
when  ordering  the  welfare  of  his  protegee.  A 
year  at  school  made  that  young  woman  into 


246  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

another  person.  She  had  still  a  howling  accent, 
but  she  didn't  swear,  and  she  was  dropping 
unconventional  idioms.  In  two  years  the  accent 
had  modified  still  further,  and  she  was  distinctly 
fit  for  civilised  society.  She  had  wonderful 
receptive  powers.  With  a  nice  discrimination 
she  imitated  the  better  methods  of  speech  and 
life  which  she  saw  in  her  new  surroundings. 
Young  Fairbairn's  only  lucid  intervals  in  his 
career  of  descent  were  during  the  school's  holi 
days.  Then  he  took  holidays  too,  and  quiet 
lodgings,  and  in  these  rigidly  adhered  to  the 
Kid's  society.'  She  soon  lost  her  scared  awe  of 
him,  and  called  him  Youngun  as  easily  as  any 
of  us  could  have  done  it. 

In  ways  the  Kid  was  a  very  old  sort  of  child, 
and  to  hear  her  read  young  Fairbairn  lectures, 
and  rate  him  generally  about  his  misdeeds,  was 
a  moral  and  improving  recreation.  I  was  dining 
with  them  one  day  just  before  things  came  to  an 
end.  She  sat  at  the  head  of  the  table  as  though 
she  had  been  born  in  the  purple.  We  discussed 
with  relish  the  ways  of  riding-masters  till  the 
entries  came,  and  then  she  broached  the  topic  of 
finance. 

She  turned  to  me  and  demanded  what  I 
thought  was  the  Youngun's  latest  craze. 

I  said  I  didn't  know. 

"  Why,"  said  she,  "  he's  actually  wanting  to 
pack  me  off  to  a  school  which  will  cost  at  the 
very  least  two  hundred  a  year,  and  he's  as  hard 


THE  KID  247 

up  as  ever  he  can  stick.  I  don't  intend  to  go ; 
they  can  teach  me  as  much  as  ever  I  want  where 
I  am.  'Tisn't  as  if  I  wanted  to  start  governess- 
ing  afterwards." 

"  The  Kiddie's  present  notion,"  said  young 
Fairbairn,  "  is  to  turn  shop  assistant  in  a  year  or 
so's  time.  Humorous  idea,  isn't  it  ?  " 

"  Shop  assistant,"  explained  the  Kid,  gravely, 
"as  a  step  to  something  else.  I  haven't  quite 
decided  yet,  but  I  think  it  will  be  in  a  photog 
rapher's  place.  I'm  not  old  enough  yet,  and  I 
shall  sponge  on  the  Youngun  for  another  two 
years ;  that  will  bring  me  up  to  sixteen,  and 
then  I'll  begin.  Do  you  know,  Mr.  M'Gilby,  I 
shouldn't  be  surprised  if  I  made  a  big  fortune." 

Young  Fairbairn  roared,  but  the  Kid  took  his 
mockery  with  easy  coolness.  The  day  afterwards, 
I  ran  across  to  the  West  Indies. 

I  saw  the  Kid  next  some  six  months  after  this, 
and  she  commented  on  young  Fairbairn's  having 
received  a  snug  Colonial  appointment.  Person 
ally,  I  was  under  the  impression  that  the  indi 
vidual  in  question  had  come  a  most  tremendous 
mucker,  and  had  cleared  out  of  the  country  with 
suddenness  lest  worse  befell ;  but  I  didn't  correct 
her  view,  and  when  I  learnt  that  two  quarters' 
school  fees  had  been  paid  since  the  exodus,  I 
wondered  much  where  the  money  had  come 
from. 

The  Kid's  education  and  other  expenses  footed 
up,  at  that  period,  to  quite  .£180  per  annum. 


248  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

Young  Fairbairn  had  to  live  himself,  somewhere, 
somehow,  and  until  he  left  these  shores  he  had 
never  done  an  hour's  work  in  his  life.  Moreover, 
he  was  eminently  unfitted,  by  both  education  and 
habits,  for  the  acquisition  of  wealth.  He  had 
shown  great  ability  to  spend  it,  and  converses 
are  seldom  true. 

When  I  saw  that  those  school  fees  continued 
to  be  paid,  these  matters  furnished  me  with  food 
for  reflection. 

m 

There  was  certainly  something  about  the  Kid's 
methods  which  one  could  not  help  admiring. 
True  to  her  previous  announcement,  at  the  age 
of  sixteen  she  took  herself  away  from  school  and 
got  a  job  in  a  big  photographer's  shop.  She  had 
to  begin  at  the  bottom  —  pencilling  in  ladies' 
eyebrows,  I  suppose,  and  tinkering  up  their  back 
hair,  and  helping  them  to  their  cloaks  when  they 
had  finished  a  sitting.  Then  she  worked  in  the 
office ;  then  as  a  retoucher,  which  brought  her 
up  to  the  age  of  nineteen.  At  this  period  Car 
negie  met  her  again,  and  was  more  impressed 
than  he  afterwards  liked. 

I  had  the  story  from  his  own  lips. 

"  I  was  never  so  struck  in  my  life,"  he  said. 
"  I  went  into  the  shop  to  get  some  cabinets  done, 
and  who  should  I  see  but  the  Kid,  pretty  as  a 
picture  and  managing  half  the  business.  She 
was  full  of  work,  and  couldn't  talk  with  me  then, 


THE  KID  249 

but  they  closed  at  six,  and  I  walked  home  with 
her.  Do  you  know,  she's  actually  putting  away 
money  ?  —  earns  it,  too.  That  sweep,  young 
Fairbairn,  has  dropped  his  remittances  —  I  never 
made  out  how  he  kept  them  going  as  long  as  he 
did  —  and  she's  been  living  entirely  on  her  own 
ever  since  she  left  school." 

And  he  said  more  things  ;  but  I  saw  there  was 
something  still  further,  and  I  pressed  Carnegie 
and  heard  it. 

"  You're  right,  M'G.,"  he  said,  with  a  sort  of 
groan  ;  «  I  did  see  more  of  her.  In  fact,  I  stayed 
on  in  town  just  because  I  wanted  to  meet  her 
every  day.  It's  rather  ludicrous,  isn't  it,  for  a 
man  of  my  position  to  care  for  a  girl  who'd  de 
veloped  from  that  Kid  ?  She  told  me  so,  too  — 
I  give  her  all  credit  for  that.  She  didn't  draw 
me  on  an  inch,  and  I'm  sure  she  was  honestly 
sorry  when  I  disregarded  several  blunt  warnings 
and  proposed  to  her.  But  she  wouldn't  hear  of 
it  —  said  she  didn't  care  for  me  in  that  way,  and 
wasn't  going  to  marry  me  for  money  ;  said  she'd 
been  beholden  enough  to  us  men  already,  and  was 
going  to  play  the  rest  of  the  game  through  with 
her  own  hand.  She's  going  to  start  up  a  place 
on  her  own  hook  directly,  but  she  wouldn't  even 
let  me  advance  a  pound  or  two  to  help  her  float 
that.  She  says  she'll  get  the  necessary  credit  in 
the  proper  quarter,  and  fight  it  through  on  her 
own  business  merits.  I  tell  you,  Mac,  old  man, 
she  has  pluck,  that  Kiddie  of  —  I  wish  I  could 


250  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

even  say,  of  ours.  But  she  isn't  ours  any  longer. 
She  isn't  even  young  Fairbairn's,  because  he's 
gone  under.  She's  just  her  own,  and  I  believe, 
as  she  says,  she'll  see  it  through  alone." 

IV 

The  Kid  did  start  that  photographic  business 
on  her  brazen  own,  and  it  prospered,  and  grew, 
and  overflowed  into  sections  and  sub-sections, 
with  four  studios  in  London  and  six  in  big  pro 
vincial  towns.  For  Art  with  a  big  A  the  Kid 
cared  not  one  little  hang ;  but  she  knew  what 
the  public  wanted,  which  is  to  be  made  to  look 
pretty  on  a  card  for  a  reasonable  price  ;  and  she 
did  this  for  them,  and  that's  why  she  caught  on. 
The  mounts  of  her  photographs  were  punched 
with  a  mere  surname  and  initials,  and  people 
took  it  for  granted  that  they  belonged  to  a  man. 
The  Kid  never  went  out  anywhere,  knew  no  one 
except  strictly  business  people,  and  was  known 
by  none.  She  made  her  one  and  only  object  in 
life  the  amassing  of  money ;  and  because  she 
stuck  to  this  aim  and  never  departed  from  it,  she 
became  the  possessor  of  stocks  and  shares  and 
majestic  bank  accounts  which  would  have  made 
London  stare  if  London  had  known  about  them. 
At  the  commencement  of  proceedings  she  had 
fixed  a  pecuniary  goal-post  to  make  for ;  to  wit, 
£250,000.  She  didn't  merely  hope  for  it;  she 
made  up  her  mind  decidedly  that  she  would  get 
it;  which  is  the  way  with  successful  people. 


THE   KID  251 

When  the  Kid  had  reached  her  mark  —  which 
she  did  at  the  absurdly  early  age  of  seven  and 
twenty  —  she  did  a  very  peculiar  thing.  She 
chucked  up  the  business  entirely.  It  was  put  to 
her  very  plainly  that,  if  she  would  still  remain 
the  nominal  head,  a  limited  liability  company 
could  be  floated  on  most  advantageous  terms. 
But  she  wouldn't  do  this;  she  wanted  to  cut  it 
altogether ;  and  consequently  she  sold  it  at  a 
painfully  small  price.  And  now  that  same  busi 
ness  is  going  down  hill  every  day,  because  the 
present  owners  don't  run  it  with  the  nous  which 
our  Kid  brought  to  bear. 

I  was  in  town  and  called  upon  the  Kid  just 
after  she  had  completed  the  sale.  She  spoke  of 
a  great  many  things,  and  finally  wound  up  by 
stating  that  a  fortune  had  been  left  out  of  re 
morse  to  young  Fairbairn  by  some  one  who  had 
swindled  him  on  the  turf. 

On  the  strength  of  one  or  two  vague  hints 
gathered  from  what  had  gone  before,  I  spoke 
up. 

"My  dear  Kiddie,"  I  said,  "you  always  used 
to  be  a  truthful  person." 

"  And  still  remain  so." 

"  As  a  general  thing,  perhaps.  But  not  about 
this  legacy  of  the  Penitent  Thief.  He's  blatantly 
apocryphal." 

"  He  shall  exist,  Mac,  if  I  choose  it  to  be  so. 
He  is  anonymous  and  repentant  and  dead.  Also 
the  money  will  be  placed  to  the  Youngun's  ac- 


252  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

count,  and  if  he  doesn't  use  it,  the  whole  lot  will 
lie  idle  doing  nothing." 

"  Kiddie,  I'm  beginning  to  believe,  with 
Carnegie,  that  you  are  about  the  best  girl  in 
the  world." 

"  Blarney,  Mac.  I  tell  you  again  that  the 
Penitent  Thief  bequeathed  the  money." 

"  And  I  repeat  that  I  don't  believe  a  word  of 
it.  You're  showing  gratitude  of  a  sort  which  I 
thought  was  only  made  up  by  the  novelist  folk." 

«  Gratitude !     Rubbish." 

I  leaned  my  head  over  her  and  spoke  very 
quietly. 

"  Then  if  it  isn't  gratitude,  Kiddie,  it's  —  it's 
the  other  thing." 

Then,  for  perhaps  the  first  time  in  her  life, 
our  Kid  lost  her  coolness.  She  started,  flushed, 
dropped  her  head  against  my  shoulder.  "  Oh, 
Mac,  old  friend,"  she  said,  "if  you  only  knew 
how  I've  felt  about  the  Youngun  all  these  years ! 
It  isn't  common  sordid  gratitude  alone.  It  is  — 
the  other  thing  as  well.  I  was  that  way  from 
the  very  beginning  when  I  sat  eating  those  choco 
late  almonds  out  of  that  white  satin  box,  and 
you  men  stood  back  to  the  fire  and  talked  over 
my  destiny.  You  thought  I  didn't  understand.  I 
did :  I  took  in  every  word,  and  I  remember  who 
said  what.  Carnegie  suggested  the  workhouse. 

You But  never  mind  that  now,  Mac  :  you 

always  were  a  good  sort.  But  it  was  the 
Youngun  who  was  the  best  of  you  all.  He 


THE  KID  253 

might  be  a  rackety  fool ;  he  might  be  this,  that, 
and  the  other ;  all  you  say  and  more.  Still,  it 
was  he  who  pulled  me  out  of  the  gutter,  and 
he  who  brought  me  up.  You  don't  know, 
you  can  never  know,  what  the  Youngun  did  for 
me,  Mac ;  and  he  thought  I  didn't  know,  didn't 
see  half  the  sacrifices  he  made.  I'm  not  emo 
tional,  old  friend,  and  I  never  said  much  then, 
and  that's  perhaps  why  I  felt  all  the  more 
deeply.  I've  never  spoken  about  it  to  a  living 
soul  yet ;  but  you  were  here  and  —  and  —  I  had 
to  tell.  Somehow  I  couldn't  keep  it  to  myself 
any  longer.  Mac,  do  you  know  how  the  Youngun 
got  money  to  keep  me  those  last  two  years  at 
school  ?  He  laboured  with  his  hands,  and  he 
pawned  his  labour  for  years  to  come  —  yes,  Mac, 
sold  himself  into  slavery,  and  wrote  me  cheery 
lies  that  he  had  an  easy  Colonial  appointment. 
And  that  was  a  man  who  was  under  no  human 
pledge  to  me  whatever  —  a  man  who  had  bought 
me  in  the  street,  bones  and  soul,  for  half  a  crown 
and  a  gallon  of  beer." 

"  I  didn't  know  all  this.  Who  would  have 
guessed  that  young  blackguard  to  be  half  such 
a  good  fellow  ?  Kiddie  dear,  if  I  were  in  your 
shoes,  I  should  love  the  ruffian  myself." 

The  Kid  gave  my  arm  a  squeeze,  and  went 
on :  — 

"  Find  him  for  me,  Mac  —  find  him,  and  bring 
him  back  to  England  and  to  what's  his.  I  can't 
get  trace  of  him  myself,  though  I  sent  a  man  out 


254  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

to  the  Cape  two  years  back,  and  kept  him  there 
till  he  had  looked  in  the  face  of  every  English 
man  in  Southern  Africa ;  and  yet  I  know  that 
he  is  alive  somewhere  —  I  am  sure  of  it.  I  can't 
tell  you  why,  but  I  am  sure." 

"  Right  you  are,  Kiddie  :  the  Youngun  is  alive, 
or  was  a  month  back." 

She  turned  upon  me  almost  fiercely. 

"  Mac  !  Mac  !  I  haven't  deserved  this !  Why 
didn't  you  tell  me  ?  " 

"  Because,  my  dear  Kid,  I  didn't  know  whether 
it  was  good  that  you  should  be  enlightened.  The 
Youngun,  as  he  at  present  stands,  is  not  a  desir 
able  object  to  bring  back  to  England  and  poverty. 
Your  man  didn't  find  him  at  the  Cape,  because 
he  wasn't  there.  He  went  on  to  Florida,  orange- 
growing.  A  full-strength  regiment  of  other  men 
have  gone  there  for  the  same  game,  and  if  all  the 
orange  trees  were  equally  divided  up,  there  might 
be  one  per  man.  As  it  is,  the  Youngun  hasn't 
got  his,  and  he  resides  in  a  palmetto-shack  near 
Naples,  and  subsists  on  mullet  and  sweet 
potatoes." 

"  Mac,  is  he  —  alone  ?  " 

I  laughed,  and  stooped  down  and  kissed  her 
on  the  hair. 

"  All  right,  Kiddie,  he's  not  married ;  and, 
as  you're  fool  enough  to  want  him,  you  shall 
have  the  beast.  I'll  go  and  clothe  him,  tell 
him  about  the  Penitent  Thief,  and  bring  him 
over." 


THE  KID  255 


Now,  I'd  made  up  my  mind  that  this  was 
going  to  be  one  of  those  ideal  things  one  reads 
about  —  a  match  that  was  a  love-match  on  both 
sides ;  but  after  six  months  had  gone  by,  I  began 
to  have  strong  doubts  as  to  whether  it  would 
turn  out  into  a  match  at  all.  Young  Fairbairn 
swallowed  the  Penitent  Thief  yarn,  lock,  stock, 
and  barrel,  and  bought  a  frock  coat  and  fine 
linen.  He  was  probably  the  happiest  man  in 
London,  and  he  assumed  an  air  of  easy  patronage 
with  the  Kid,  for  which  I  lusted  to  kick  him.  He 
hadn't  aged  one  bit  in  his  years  of  vagabondage, 
because,  amongst  his  few  virtues,  he  did  not 
drink,  and  was  not  addicted  to  head-work.  He 
looked  very  smart  and  debonair,  but  when  I  saw 
him  taking  the  Kid  about,  and  playing  the  rdle  of 
benevolent  uncle,  I  felt  more  than  riled.  She, 
poor  girl,  looked  wretched ;  yet  what  could  a 
man  do  ?  A  third  person  who  interferes  in  these 
matters  is  usually,  in  the  future,  cut  dead  by 
both  parties. 

But  at  last  I  could  stand  it  no  longer.  Young 
Fairbairn  with  his  absurdly  patronising  airs 
made  me  burst  rabidly  into  speech. 

"  D'  you  know,  Mac,"  he  said  one  day  at  the 
club,  "  that  when  I  first  came  back  here  I  very 
nearly  got  mashed  on  that  Kid  of  ours.  Thought 
of  marrying  her,  I  mean.  Fact:  I  really  did. 


256  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

By  the  way,  haven't  you  ever  thought  it's  queer 
she  never  did  pick  up  a  husband  ?  She's  jolly 
good-looking ;  she's  rich ;  and  I  swear  no  one 
would  ever  spot  she  isn't  a  lady.  But,"  he  con 
cluded  reflectively,  "  I  believe  she's  one  of  those 
curious  women  who  don't  care  twopence  for  any 
men." 

It  was  then  that  I  rose  in  my  wrath,  and 
shamefully  abused  part  of  a  woman's  confidence, 
and  rent  young  Fairbairn  into  startled  fragments. 
I  spoke  of  the  Penitent  Thief.  He  had  puzzled 
over  that  individual  a  little,  but  not  much:  didn't 
see  that  his  identity  mattered  so  long  as  the 
money  was  there.  But  when  I  drew  his  more 
special  attention  to  the  story,  he  saw  that  that 
deceased  robber  was  an  utterly  impossible  and 
apocryphal  personage,  and  another  light  began 
to  dawn  upon  him. 

"  My  word,  M'G.,  is  this  really  true  ?  Didn't 
this  fellow  ever  exist  ?  And  is  it  the  Kid  who 
has  really  pensioned  me  ?  " 

"  Use  the  small  wit  the  fates  have  given  you," 
I  snarled  back. 

"  I  deserve  to  be  kicked." 

"  If  ever  a  man  did,  you're  he.  But  I  thought 
you  were  in  love  with  the  girl  all  along,  or  you 
should  have  stayed  in  your  palmetto-shack. 
What  did  you  bring  her  up  for  ?  Why  did  you 
do  hard  labour  in  the  Cape  to  pay  those  school 
fees  ?  " 

"Because  that  was  the  only  one  dogged  thing 


THE   KID  257 

I  had  in  my  nature.  I  swore  to  myself  I'd  rear 
up  that  Kid  decently  ;  and  at  other  times  I  swore 
other  things  ;  but  that  was  the  only  one  I  ever  at 
all  stuck  to.  But  I  didn't  do  it  because  I  loved 
her  —  not  then,  that  is.  I  —  er  —  I  suppose  I  do 
love  her  now.  Since  I've  come  back,  that  is,  and 
she's  grown  up.  Yes,  old  man,  of  course  I  am 
honestly  and  really  in  love  with  her  now." 

I  considered  he  was  lying,  but  didn't  say  so : 
preserved  instead  the  silence  of  the  damned. 

"  You  needn't  glare  at  me  in  that  way,  Mac. 
In  fact,  confound  me,  I  should  like  to  know 
what  the  devil  you  mean  by  it  ?  You  seem  in  an 
infernal  sulky  temper  this  morning.  I'll  leave 
you.  I'm  going  to  look  up  the  Kid." 

"  If  you've  anything  of  the  gentleman  left  in 
you,  you'll  propose  to  her,"  I  snapped  out. 

"  You  mind  your  own  blasted  business," 
retorted  young  Fairbairn,  and  slammed  the  door 
behind  him. 

I  paced  up  and  down  the  room,  and  relieved 
my  feelings  by  addressing  profanity  to  the 
chandelier.  This  employment  soothes  one  under 
some  circumstances. 

Young  Fairbairn  did  not  turn  up  to  a  dinner 
appointment  that  night,  much  to  the  annoyance 
of  a  certain  hostess  with  daughters  ;  but  I  saw 
him  next  day  at  a  private  view,  and  the  Kid  was 
hanging  close  on  his  elbow.  She  was  beaming. 
She  was  looking  so  absurdly  happy  that  people 
stared  a  little  and  then  smiled. 


258  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

The  rooms  were  crammed,  and  it  was  some 
time  before  we  came  together.  But  she  caught 
my  fiye  early  on,  and  telegraphed  to  me  a  long 
bulletin  in  two  oeillades  and  a  lift  of  the  eye 
brows.  You  see,  I  have  come  to  understand  the 
Kid's  methods  rather  well.  It  is  the  way  with 
a  woman  you  are  fond  of.  But  at  last  the  crowd 
surged,  and  I  got  across. 

"  Mac,"  she  said,  when  I  shook  hands  with  her, 
"  what  have  you  been  doing  to  the  Youngun  ? 
He  says  he  won't  have  you  for  his  best  man,  and 
I  can't  get  out  of  him  why.  Now  sit  down  here 
with  me  and  tell  the  reason  at  once." 


XVI 

THE  RENEGADE 


"  DZE  trade's  nod  what  it  was,"  said  Schwartz, 
"  we  are  getting  shut  in.  It  is  those  teufel 
English  dot's  shutting  us." 

"  Don't  abuse  the  English,"  said  Moriarty ; 
"they  play  fair,  and  we've  got  to  take  our 
chances.  There's  a  bit  too  much  of  the  sordid 
money  grubber  about  you,  mein  Herr  partner, 
for  my  taste.  Now  I'm  this  way :  if  I  can't  be 
with  the  hounds,  I  don't  mind  playing  fox.  I 
must  be  in  the  hunt  somewhere.  It's  no  use 
asking  me  to  be  a  plain  humdrum  shopkeeper. 
I  couldn't  do  it." 

"  No  one  asks  you.  You  are  slave  dealer  now, 
and  dot's  somewhere  very  different."  Schwartz 
poured  fresh  tobacco  into  the  china  bowl  of  his 
pipe  from  a  gourd,  and  a  watchful  negro  girl 
brought  her  master  a  light  from  the  cooking  fire 
outside  the  hut.  «  You  have  had  your  fun  get 
ting  dis  grew  together  —  more  fun  than  I  liked 
—  und  now  what  I  say  is,  let  us  shkip  for  dze 
Goast,  und  find  dhows,  und  get  dze  niggers  sold 

259 


260  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

in  South  Arabian  ports,  where  dere's  always  a 
strong  market." 

"  We've  only  eighty  head  of  the  beggars  so 
far,"  said  the  Irishman,  "and  counting — er  — 
casualties,  it's  doubtful  if  we  can  bring  more 
than  sixty  of  those  to  our  friends  the  purchasers, 
even  if  we  have  the  luck  to  dodge  the  cruisers 
and  not  lose  any  of  the  dhows.  Now  I  say  it's 
not  enough.  I'm  in  this  business  for  the  sport 
of  the  thing,  as  I've  told  you  many  a  time 
already,  but  I'm  in  it  for  profit  as  well.  And 
this  coup  isn't  big  enough  for  my  taste,  anywhere 
near." 

"Ach,  you  want  to  get  rich  quick,  und  go  back 
to  Inkland,  und  be  respectable  once  mores." 

Moriarty  laughed  rather  savagely.  "  Mr. 
Schwartz,"  he  said,  "  if  you  were  a  gentleman, 
I'd  hit  you.  You  got  the  story  of  my  mess  out 
of  me  drunk,  and  I  don't  mind  repeating  it  to  you 
sober.  A  man  who  has  been  in  the  Service,  and 
who  got  caught  as  I  was,  swindling  —  you  see  I 
don't  mince  the  word  —  swindling  at  loo,  clears 
out  of  England  as  fast  as  he  can  run,  and  he  doesn't 
go  back.  If  he  did,  the  regiment  would  just  eat 
him.  But  as  I  say,  he  doesn't  go  back,  having 
some  shreds  of  decency  left.  Still,  the  incident 
is  one  he  naturally  isn't  proud  of,  and  although  if 
some  bounder  (who  doesn't  know  better)  drags  it 
up  a  second  time,  and  he  doesn't  smash  that 
bounder's  face  without  further  warning,  there  is  a 
distinct  limit  to  his  patience,  and  if  the  subject 


THE   RENEGADE  261 

isn't  dropped,  he  is  bound  to  hit  sooner  or  later. 
You  quite  see  this  officer's  way  of  looking  at  it  ?  " 

"You  talk  outside  me,"  said  Schwartz,  "but 
if  I  have  said  something  you  do  not  like,  I  am 
sorry.  I  do  not  play  your  English  card  game,  loo. 
I  play  only  sciart.  Und  for  what  do  you  want 
moneys  if  you  wish  not  to  leave  dis  Africa,  und 
go  somewheres  else  to  be  respectable  ?  " 

"  Well,  old  man,  the  jaunt  I  have  in  my  mind's 
eye  at  present  is  a  bit  of  a  tea-party  in  Zanzibar. 
I've  been  there  once  before,  and  beheld  the  place, 
and  saw  its  opportunities  ;  but  I'd  no  money,  and 
had  to  clear.  Oh,  you  didn't  know  me  there. 
It  was  before  I'd  come  low  enough  —  I  mean  be 
fore  I'd  the  felicity  to  become  your  partner  over 
this  slave-trading  racket.  However,  you  shall 
just  see  me  in  Zanzibar  the  next  time,  if  I've  got 
the  funds.  I'll  paint  that  town  the  lightest  tint 
of  post-office  red  ;  I'll  give  the  girls  the  most 
gorgeous  kind  of  treat ;  and  when  I've  got  steam 
thoroughly  up,  I'll  go  and  draw  the  British  Con 
sul.  Finest  sort  of  entertainment  imaginable 
that,  Schwartz,  when  you're  at  some  hole-in-corner 
foreign  town,  to  go  and  solemnly  pull  the  leg  of 
the  British  Consul.  I  go  and  tell  him  I'm  a 
persecuted  Irish  informer,  paid  by  the  Government 
to  skip  the  country,  followed  everywhere,  and  in 
hourly  dread  of  assassination.  If  I've  luck,  I  can 
always  persuade  him  that  half  the  respectable 
residents  of  his  town  are  subsidised  by  the  Fenians 
to  put  a  knife  between  my  shoulder  blades." 


262  ATOMS  OF   EMPIRE 

"  Well,  I  am  not  dot  kind  of  damfool  myself. 
But  I  do  not  stand  in  the  way  of  your  desires. 
Let  us  trek,  und  so  the  sooner  you  can  get  to  your 
red-painting  "  —  Herr  Schwartz  waved  a  hand  to 
indicate  the  village  with  the  White  Nile  swilling 
along  its  flank.  "  The  use  of  this  place  is  to  us 
ended.  The  Inklish  will  get  Khartoum  to-morrow 
of  the  next  day ;  dere  was  nothing  who  can  stop 
dem  getting  Khartoum ;  und  then  in  one  month 
dey  valse  in  here  und  make  demselves  king  in  the 
present  thief-king's  place." 

"  Rule  Britannia,"  said  Moriarty.  "  I  bet  they 
have  a  fine  picnic  of  it,  and  make  His  Wickedness 
the  King  here  sit  up.  A  little  hanging  would  do 
him  a  power  of  good." 

"  We  haf  all  dze  slave  he  can  find  for  sell,"  said 
Schwartz.  "  He  got  no  further  use,  und  your 
meddlesome  Inklish  can  hang  him  first  und  eat 
him  afterwards  for  all  I  care.  Girl,  bring  me 
fire.  If  you  do  not  watch  to  see  when  my  pipe 
is  dead,  I  will  haf  you  whipped." 

"  Yes,  we're  a  grateful  couple,  aren't  we  ?  I 
wonder  what  force  they'll  send  up  to  do  the  job. 
If  they  only  bring  Gippy  regiments  without  a 
battalion  or  so  of  Tommies  to  stiffen  them  up, 
they'll  be  likely  to  catch  a  cold." 

"  Zo  ?  "  said  Schwartz.  "  Then  you  must  think 
small  of  your  Inklish  soldiers,  und  your  Egypt 
mercenaries.  Mit  one  tousand  of  any  continen 
tal  troops  I  would  kill  all  dose  peoples  who 
live  here  "  —  he  jerked  a  contemptuous  thumb 


THE   RENEGADE  263 

towards  the  town  —  "  und  set  dem  to  float  down 
der  Nile  for  crocodile-chop.  Ja,  und  I  would  not 
lose  ten  men  doing  it." 

"  Oh,  get  out,"  said  the  professional  soldier. 
"  There  are  twelve  thousand  fighting  men  here 
and  in  the  district,  and  they  have  all  got  guns  of 
sorts,  with  swords  and  spears  and  mountains  of 
pluck  to  fall  back  upon.  I  tell  you  that  some 
officer  will  find  soon  that  this  town  is  a  toughish 
nut  to  crack." 

"  And  I  tell  you  that  you  are  wrong.  Dere  is 
not  a  night  comes  but  what  fifty,  hundred,  two 
hundred,  sometimes  tousand  peoples  creep  away 
from  here  und  get  gobbled  up  by  big  country  out 
beyond  there.  Dey  don't  like  the  king  because 
he  sells  dem  for  slaves  some,  or  cuts  off  deir 
hands  and  feet  when  he  has  headache ;  und  dey 
don't  like  dze  Inklish  dot's  coming,  pecause  dey 
think  dze  Inklish  —  how  you  say  ?  —  anthropoph 
agous.  You  do  not  believe  ?  Well,  you  have 
been  away  und  you  do  not  know.  But  I  haf  been 
here  all  dis  time,  und  I  can  see  mit  mine  eyes." 

"  Come  to  think  of  it,  I  have  been  away  from 
here  three  months  collecting  that  last  batch  of  nig 
gers,  and  as  you've  been  on  the  spot  all  the  time, 
I  suppose  you  will  be  better  up  in  local  politics. 
Well,  there'll  be  less  scrimmage  when  our  chaps 
do  come,  and  fewer  funerals,  and  slower  promo 
tion,  that's  all.  Rhodes  won't  be  long  in  getting 
his  through  cable  from  the  Cape  to  Cairo,  now." 

It   appeared    that    the    grimy   Schwartz   had 


264  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

something  more  to  say  on  this  point,  for  he  was 
obviously  working  up  his  slim  knowledge  of  the 
English  tongue  into  the  framing  of  a  suitable 
sentence ;  but  some  other  thought  seemed  to 
occur  to  him  before  that  sentence  was  fit  for  de 
livery,  and  he  stifled  it  in  its  birth.  So  the 
larger  topic  dropped  between  them,  and  they  fell 
to  talking  of  their  own  more  immediate  interests. 
The  red-headed  Moriarty  told  the  successes  and 
failures  of  his  recent  raid ;  how  he  had  caught 
a  dozen  stout  slaves  here ;  how  at  the  next  vil 
lage  every  soul  had  got  the  alarm  early,  and 
escaped  into  the  bush  before  he  and  his  merry 
men  came  up ;  and  how  at  another  place,  which 
he  had  surrounded  with  elaborate  caution,  and 
where  he  looked  forward  to  a  fat  capture,  he 
found  confluent  small-pox  raging,  and  was  tem 
porarily  deserted  by  his  own  men  because  he 
would  not  run  away  at  the  pace  they  chose  for 
their  hurried  retreat.  "  By  all  the  Saints,"  he 
finished  up,  "  I've  the  makings  of  a  rare  bucca 
neer  in  me.  I  tell  you  I've  regularly  enjoyed 
myself  sometimes.  They  were  regular  divils  for 
a  fight :  both  our  own  ruffians  and  the  fellows 
we  came  across.  I  didn't  envy  you  your  barrack 
duty  here,  mein  herr." 

"  Every  man  for  his  capacity,"  said  the  Ger 
man.  « I  take  what  I  am  capable  most  of  per 
forming.  I  was  book-keeper  once  in  Berlin  till 
dze  books  go  wrong,  und  when  I  come  —  how 
do  you  say  ?  " 


THE   RENEGADE  265 

"  When  you  get  out  of  chokey  you  want  to  be 
back  at  book-keeping  again,  eh  ?  You're  a  most 
business-like  creature,  Schwartz." 

"  Well,"  said  Schwartz,  "  here  is  what  I  haf 
done,"  and  he  reeled  out  long  catalogues  of  house 
keeping,  and  slave-guarding,  and  bribes  to  the 
savage  potentate  who  had  given  them  camp- 
room.  The  account  was  redolent  with  figures 
and  arid  facts,  and  Moriarty  lay  back  in  his  chair 
and  yawned  and  made  but  a  limp  show  of  atten 
tion.  But  the  German  mouthed  his  statement 
with  gusto.  As  he  said,  every  man  has  his  own 
particular  favourites  amongst  the  affairs  of  life. 

But  a  stop  was  put  to  this  reporting.  Mes 
sengers  came  from  the  King,  bearing  the  usual 
present  of  introduction  in  the  shape  of  a  skinny 
sheep.  What  they  had  to  say  was  weighty  matter 
enough,  and  whilst  they  spoke  the  sheep  bleated 
outside  the  door  in  the  throes  of  execution.  A 
force  headed  by  Belgians,  it  seems,  was  coming  up 
out  of  the  Congo  territory,  and  the  King  wanted 
the  help  of  his  two  European  guests  and  their 
trained  fighting  men  to  aid  him  in  repelling  the 
invasion. 

The  message  was  spelled  out  in  laborious  phrases 
and  gestures  by  the  interpreter,  and  Moriarty's 
eye  lit  as  he  listened.  But  Schwartz  was  stolidly 
contemptuous.  "  What  for  do  you  come  again 
with  this  tale  ?  "  asked  Schwartz,  when  they  had 
finished  their  say.  "  Yesterday  you  ask  me  the 
same,  und  I  say,  dis  your  king's  palaver ;  dis  not 


266  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

our  palaver  ;  und  —  we  shall  not  help  his  fight." 
He  flung  a  hand  towards  the  door  of  the  hut  — 
"  Go,"  he  said.  «  We  are  traders ;  we  do  not 
mix  in  dose  matters." 

The  interpreter  turned  and  explained,  but  the 
envoys  did  not  at  once  depart.  They  looked 
meaningly  at  Moriarty,  as  though  they  expected 
him  to  join  in  the  answer. 

Moriarty  whistled  thoughtfully.  "  It  would 
be  a  mess,"  he  said,  after  a  pause,  "  if  these  blessed 
Belgians  did  come  and  smash  up  the  army  of  His 
Wickedness,  and  collar  the  town." 

« What  would  it  matter  to  you  ? "  grunted 
Schwartz. 

"  Well,  if  they  were  here,  and  in  possession, 
our  fellows  could  not  very  well  take  it." 

"  Zo.  But  still  I  do  not  see  how  you  would 
be  hurt." 

"Hang  it  all,  man,  supposing  there  was  a 
German  army  working  up  the  river,  and  they'd 
got  Egypt,  and  they'd  got  the  Lakes,  and  the 
Cape,  and  all  the  country  down  there,  and  they 
were  just  wanting  this  bit  of  ground  here  for 
their  through  telegraph  wire,  what  would  you 
do?" 

"  Nothing.  Chermany  can  betam.  I  am 
cosmopolite." 

"  Well,  I'm  not,"  said  Moriarty.  «  By  God,  no  ! 
Civis  Romanus  sum  (though  I  never  shouted  it 
out  like  that  before),  and  if  I  can  help  the  old 
shop  to  hoe  her  row,  I'm  on  for  doing  it.  I'm 


THE   RENEGADE  267 

kicked  out  of  course,  but,  by  the  Lord,  I'd  rather 
be  a  kicked-out  Britisher  than  a  full-blown  citi 
zen  of  —  well  —  a  continental  country  I  could 
name." 

"Chermany?  Quite  so.  Chermany  is  a  swine 
country,  if  you  like.  I  do  not  mind.  I  am  cos 
mopolite.  But  why  should  you  interfere  here  ? 
If  you  keep  back  dose  Belgians  till  dze  Inklish 
can  come,  do  you  think  dey  will  thank  you  ? 
Ach,  no  ! " 

"  I  should  say  they  will  shoot  me  if  they  can 
catch  me  within  gunshot.  The  British  Army 
doesn't  recognise  the  unauthorised  help  of  civil 
ians,  and  I'm  a  civilian  now ;  and  moreover,  you 
know,  Mr.  Schwartz,  there's  a  prejudice  against 
slave-traders,  especially  white  slave-traders.  No, 
my  man,  I've  absolutely  nothing  definite  to  gain 
out  of  interfering  —  except  the  satisfaction  of 
upsetting  those  beastly  Belgians  —  but,  at  the 
same  time,  I'm  going  to  do  it." 

"  But  I  say  no.  Und  we  are  partners.  Und 
so  I  haf  my  say." 

"  Partners  we  may  be  in  trade.  But  I'm  the 
man  that's  bossed  our  soldiers,  and  there's  small 
doubt  as  to  whose  orders  they'll  obey  if  you  try 
to  set  up  against  me." 

"  You  are  breaking  der  deed  of  partnership," 
said  the  German,  violently. 

"Very  well,"  said  Moriarty,  "when  you  get 
down  to  the  nearest  consulate,  put  your  com 
plaint  in  writing.  It  would  make  a  fine  head- 


268  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

ing  for  a  newspaper  article :  '  The  injured 
Slave-trader.' ' 

"  You  are  dishonest  to  me." 

"  Who  are  either  of  us  that  we  should  set  about 
measuring  honour  or  honesty  ?  Now  look  here, 
my  man.  You'd  better  give  way  civilly,  and 
make  the  best  of  it.  For  good  or  evil  I  always 
have  my  way,  and  you  know  it,  and  I'm  going  to 
help  His  Wickedness  here  against  these  Belgians, 
and  that's  flat.  But  look  now,  we'll  have  an  eye 
to  business  over  the  matter,  too,  if  that'll  suit 
you.  I  don't  know  that  Congo  niggers  make  any 
worse  slaves  than  Somalis.  They'll  buy  most 
anything  with  four  black  limbs  to  it  in  those 
South  Arabian  ports." 

"  Dot  vas  so.     I  hadn't  thought  of  dose." 

"  Well,  don't  you  talk  any  more  about  my 
breaking  the  partnership  agreement.  The  thing 
turns  out  to  be  a  sound,  honest,  business  specula 
tion  (though,  'faith,  neither  of  us  seemed  to  have 
guessed  it  before),  and  I  ought  to  draw  an  extra 
percentage  of  the  profits  for  making  you  chip 
in.  My  aunt,  but  I  will  decorate  Zanzibar  if 
this  comes  off.  And  pull  that  British  Consul's 
leg." 

"  You  look  too  far  ahead.  Dere  was  bad  risk, 
I  tell  you." 

"  Always  is  over  a  soft  thing.  But  if  this  has 
got  to  be  gone  through  with,  I  must  get  His 
Wicked  ness's  local  army  together,  and  put  it 
through  its  Autumn  Manoeuvres  before  any  more 


THE   RENEGADE  269 

time's  lost."  He  turned  to  the  waiting  envoys, 
and  the  interpreter  bowed  expectantly.  "  Look 
here,  Mr.  Linguister,  go  and  tell  the  king  that 
we'll  help  defend  his  hearth  and  home,  but  that 
he  must  give  me  command  of  his  rabble  as  well 
as  my  own.  You  don't  quite  savvy  ?  Well,  by 
Jove,  I'll  come  with  you  and  see  the  old  rip  now 
this  minute.  If  we're  going  to  pull  this  thing 
off,  there's  no  time  left  to  waste  over  diplomatic 
approaches." 

There  is,  perhaps,  nothing  on  earth  more  flat 
tering  to  the  white  man,  until  use  has  made  the 
compliment  stale,  than  the  black  man's  blind 
acknowledgment  of  his  superiority  in  the  arts 
of  both  war  and  peace.  There  seems  something 
instinctive  about  this,  just  as  there  is  for  the 
young  monkey  to  climb,  or  for  the  unfledged 
thrush  to  open  its  mouth  for  worms.  And  so 
when  it  became  known  that  the  red-headed  white 
man  Moriarty,  assisted  by  the  dirty  white  man 
in  spectacles,  was  to  superintend  the  fighting  of 
the  king's  troops,  the  backs  of  those  worthies 
stiffened  forthwith,  and  the  series  of  nightly  de 
sertions  came  to  an  end.  The  African  may  resent 
executions,  and  mutilations,  and  confiscations  if 
these  are  carried  on  too  long,  though,  truth  to  say, 
he  is  very  long-suffering  in  the  matter ;  but  he  is 
a  perfect  glutton  for  a  fight  if  he  is  sure  that  he 
will  be  competently  led,  and  on  a  well-arranged 
field  of  battle  he  will  die  as  stubbornly  and  light- 
heartedly  as  any  commander  could  desire. 


270  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

Now  in  the  days  before  the  Fall,  when  Moriarty 
served  the  Queen,  his  superior  officers  had  many 
a  time  shaken  their  heads  over  him,  and  none  of 
them  had  ever  seen  fit  to  predict  that  he  would 
rise  unreasonably  high  in  his  profession.  But  for 
this  other  kind  of  leadership  he  was  exactly  fitted. 
His  early  military  education  had  given  him  a  rude 
notion  of  strategy  and  the  handling  of  troops,  and 
his  recent  experiences  had  taught  him  nicely  the 
limitations  of  the  African.  He  knew  to  a  nicety 
how  much  to  lead,  how  much  to  taunt,  how  much 
to  praise,  how  much  to  drive,  and  he  never  fell 
into  the  blunder  of  giving  his  under  officers  orders 
so  complicated  that  the  thickness  of  their  heads 
would  prevent  those  orders  being  carried  out. 
He  erected  an  iron  discipline  tempered  with  un 
expected  kindnesses,  and  he  let  his  troops  clearly 
understand  that  if  they  did  not  crumple  up  the 
Belgians,  they  would  suffer  very  heavily  under 
the  vengeance  of  Mr.  Moriarty.  As  an  after 
thought,  he  explained  his  wish  to  capture  alive 
as  many  of  the  Belgians'  black  soldiers  as  might 
be,  having  need  for  them  in  the  ranks  of  his 
slave-caravan. 

Schwartz  was  his  incubus.  Schwartz  openly 
quavered  for  his  skin,  and  repeated  daily  that  he 
had  come  up-country  for  trade  and  not  for  polit 
ical  meddling,  and  he  refused  to  be  comforted 
even  by  the  promise  of  whole  regiments  —  pro 
spective  regiments  —  of  valuable  black  ivory. 

Schwartz  was  a  great  nuisance,  and  his  partner 


THE  RENEGADE  271 

was  often  tempted  to  shoot  him  out  of  mischief's 
way.  And  on  his  part,  Herr  Schwartz  was  pon 
derously  searching  for  an  opportunity  to  shoot  the 
meddlesome  Mr.  Moriarty,  so  that  the  inheritance 
already  collected  might  be  his,  and  he  could  leave 
the  district  ere  worse  befell.  It  was  the  near 
ness  of  those  teufel  English  which  got  on  Schwartz' 
nerves.  He  did  not  look  upon  them  as  adding 
sport  to  the  situation.  He  looked  upon  them 
merely  as  the  enemies  to  a  very  lucrative  trade. 
And  so  the  situation  in  the  army  of  defence 
was  not  without  its  straining  elements. 


n 

Now  in  the  English  camp,  by  the  White  Nile- 
side,  some  fifty  miles  lower  down  the  river,  there 
was  an  Intelligence  Department  that  was  reported 
in  native  quarters  to  be  in  league  with  dijinns 
and  afrits ;  and  certainly  many  of  its  perform 
ances  (when  the  propelling  machinery  was  left 
unexplained)  bordered  on  the  marvellous.  At 
the  same  time,  because  something  must  always 
be  allowed  for  the  imagination  of  the  African, 
its  utterances  were  not  always  to  be  relied  on 
as  being  exclusively  composed  of  fact.  This 
limitation  was  quite  understood,  and  as  a  rule 
caused  no  special  inconvenience. 

The  General  in  command  of  the  camp  however 
was  on  one  occasion  led,  solely  through  the  In 
telligence  Department,  to  give  order  for  a  white 


272  ATOMS   OF  EMPIRE 

man's  execution,  when  he  might  very  reasonably 
have  let  the  poor  fellow  continue  to  live  had  his 
information  been  a  little  more  detailed  and  accu 
rate.  It  was  true  that  the  white  man  was  beyond 
the  pale  of  society,  and  also  that  he  was  that  odious 
thing,  a  collector  and  a  trafficker  in  negro  slaves  ; 
but  he  deliberately  (in  the  course  of  his  other 
employment)  gave  the  Empire  a  helping  lift 
onwards  in  her  career,  and  on  this  account,  if 
for  no  other,  he  deserved  to  be  fired  at  with  a 
crooked  gun,  and  given  a  hint  to  hurry  away 
and  escape. 

For  various  reasons  it  was  a  delicate  affair,  and 
one  for  which  the  order  could  not  be  given  in 
anything  like  openness ;  but  the  General  knew 
his  officers,  and  after  thought  singled  out  a  cer 
tain  subaltern  with  ambition.  It  was  not  a 
matter  over  which  an  order  could  be  given  in 
writing  ;  indeed,  it  was  one  of  those  things  which 
the  senior  would  repudiate  if  anything  went 
wrong,  and  for  which  the  subordinate  would 
have  to  bear  the  blame ;  and  this  the  General 
pointed  out  with  easy  frankness,  and  the  sub 
altern  heard  with  a  thumping  heart  because  he 
saw  that  here  was  indicated  promotion. 

They  had  gone  out  into  the  desert  after  the 
humble  picnic  known  as  mess,  these  two,  and 
they  walked  under  the  violent  moonshine  where 
none  could  overhear  them.  Behind  them  was 
the  hum  and  glow  of  the  camp,  and  the  bustle 
of  men  being  embarked  on  a  couple  of  stern- 


THE   RENEGADE  273 

wheel  steamers ;  and  before  them  was  the 
great  sand  waste,  with  its  scattered  furni 
ture  of  bones  and  thorn  bushes.  Men  say 
and  think  things  quite  as  matter  of  fact  in 
these  regions  of  danger  and  discomfort  that 
they  would  barely  dare  to  dream  about  in  civil 
ised  homely  England.  There  is  a  balance  in 
these  affairs. 

"Now,"  said  the  General,  "those  steamboats 
are  going  up  river,. crammed  with  as  many  men 
as  they'll  hold,  and  an  hour  before  dawn  they're 
to  attack  and  take  a  town  that's  just  fifty  miles 
from  here.  All  this  you  know,  but  I'm  just 
recapitulating  for  the  sake  of  clearness.  Give 
me  a  match.  Thanks.  There'll  be  fighting, 
bad  fighting;  and  if  there  were  more  steamers, 
I'd  much  like  to  send  more  men.  But  those  two 
are  all  there  are,  and  they're  packed  as  tight  as 
they'll  hold,  and  so  the  fellows  who'll  go  will 
have  to  fight  all  the  harder,  eh  ? " 

"  They  won't  mind,"  commented  the  subaltern, 
thinking  he  was  expected  to  say  something.  "  All 
the  more  promotion,  sir." 

«  You'd  like  a  step,  eh  ?  " 

"  I'm  to  be  married,  sir,  when  I  get  my  com 
pany." 

"  Humph,  well,  I  can  perhaps  put  you  in  the 
way  of  it.  But  if  you  do  get  it,  and  don't  con 
trive  to  be  knocked  on  the  head  in  the  process, 
you'd  perhaps  better  not  tell  the  lady  the  details 
afterwards.  It's  a  Service  matter." 


274  ATOMS  OF  EMPIRE 

"  Quite  understand,  sir." 

«  Very  well,  then.  Now  look  here  :  this  is  the 
situation.  The  reason  I  can't  afford  to  wait 
whilst  another  steamer  is  pushed  up  river  so 
that  I  could  send  a  stronger  force,  is  because 
that  old  King  up  there  has  got  some  white 
blackguard  to  drill  his  troops.  The  fellow, 
according  to  our  intelligence,  once  wore  the 
same  coat  you've  got  on  now,  more  shame  to 
him,  and  he's  quite  up  to  his  work ;  and  if  we 
give  him  enough  time  to  knock  the  niggers  into 
shape,  he'll  get  a  force  together  in  that  town 
which  will  take  a  lot  of  licking.  So  you  see 
that's  why  I'm  pushing  forward  the  attack  at 
once.  Follow  ?  " 

"  Perfectly." 

"Good.  Then  here's  your  work  cut  out  for 
you.  Never  mind  the  general  scuffle.  Keep  your 
eye  on  the  white  man,  and  bottle  him.  You 
needn't  have  any  sentimental  notions  of  pity ; 
he's  a  most  pernicious  renegade,  anyway  ;  and 
he's  far  too  capable  and  mischievous  to  be  let 
run  wild  about  Africa  any  longer.  You  quite 
grasp  ?  " 

"  I  think  so.  You  want  this  Englishman 
brought " 

«  Confound  you,  no,  I  want  him  brought  no 
where.  To  begin  with,  he  isn't  an  Englishman 
at  all,  if  they  report  rightly  from  Zanzibar. 
He's  Irish  and  —  well,  I'm  an  Irishman  too, 
me  lad,  and  I  know  my  countrymen.  If  you 


THE   RENEGADE  275 

brought  him  into  camp  here  I  couldn't  very  well 
hang  him,  and  he'd  talk,  and  talk,  and  there'd 
be  no  knowing  where  he'd  stop  once  he  got  his 
tongue  well  started.  There  was  a  blackguard  I 
knew  once,  called  Moriarty,  who  got  broke  for 
card-sharping  —  well,  never  mind  that.  But  un 
derstand  quite  clearly  that  whatever  happens,  I 
don't  want  that  man  taken  prisoner.  Have  you 
got  it  all  now  ?  My  faith,  there  goes  the  bugle  ! 
Be  off  with  you,  or  the  boats  will  start  whilst 
you  are  on  the  bank." 

Presumably  the  General  merely  wished  the 
interview  to  end,  because  after  the  subaltern 
raced  off,  he  too  followed  at  more  leisurely  pace, 
and  after  he  had  passed  through  the  camp  and 
come  to  the  river's  bank,  the  two  steamers  were 
still  waiting  (as  though  by  order)  to  receive  his 
final  word.  He  proceeded  to  give  this  in  those 
sharp,  telling  phrases  which  sound  so  finely  at  the 
time,  though  they  always  savour  of  melodrama 
afterwards,  and  then  the  steamers  wheeled  off 
into  the  black  and  silver  of  the  night,  and  those 
who  were  left  behind  cheered,  and  began  to 
reckon  what  coming  casualties  might  bring 
them.  There  is  always  the  chance  on  active 
service  of  waking  up  one  morning  famous  — 
through  receipt  of  an  acting  commission. 

Now  the  period  of  waiting  for  a  coup  of  this 
sort  to  develop  itself  one  way  or  another  is  never 
a  time  of  undiluted  joy.  The  General  in  com 
mand  was  in  especial  eaten  up  with  the  unpleas- 


276  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

antest  anxiety,  and  officers  who  came  in  contact 
with  him  said  that  his  temper  verged  on  the 
diabolic.  He  had  done  his  best,  but  that  does 
not  count  for  much.  There  were  bound  to  be  so 
many  chances  which  he  could  not  foresee.  If  all 
went  off  rightly,  well,  he  wrote  his  dispatches 
with  a  free  hand,  and  a  little  later  on  would 
step  into  a  knighthood,  which,  he  told  himself, 
he  thoroughly  deserved.  But  if  the  renegade 
white  man  up  country  had  drilled  the  negroes 
into  too  formidable  shape,  and  the  English 
troops  had  to  retire  (which  is  the  polite  word 
for  run  away)  a  good  deal  cut  up,  well  then  he 
would  have  to  take  the  consequences,  and  own 
up  to  the  disaster  in  formal  black  and  white. 
There  are  too  many  newspaper  correspondents 
about  nowadays  for  a  commanding  officer  to 
gloss  over  defeat  very  delicately.  He  would  be 
told  that  he  had  been  rash  if  the  defeat  was 
small,  criminally  rash  if  the  beating  was  a  bad 
one,  and  an  official  black  mark  would  be  put 
against  his  name  that  would  take  a  lot  of  rub 
bing  out.  But  the  event  was  now  out  of  his 
hands,  and  the  only  thing  left  him  was  to  pray 
for  luck,  which  is  an  irritating  species  of  sup 
plication,  as  his  fellow-officers  found. 

But  two  days  after  they  had  steamed  away, 
one  of  the  stern-wheelers  came  spluttering  back 
and  tied  up  against  the  bank,  and  began  with 
care  to  disgorge  half  a  dozen  wounded.  From 
the  look  of  that,  there  had  been  nothing  vitally 


THE   RENEGADE  277 

wrong,  and  presently  when  the  formal  written 
report  came  to  be  read,  the  General's  face  began  to 
brighten  marvellously.  "Let's  see  the  butcher's 
bill,"  he  muttered  to  himself;  « three  killed,  eleven 
wounded  ;  why,  that's  nothing.  And  they've  got 
the  place,  lock,  stock,  and  barrel."  And  then  he 
turned  back  to  the  body  of  the  report  and  lifted 
his  eyebrows  and  said  "  Humph  !  "  A  little  later 
he  said  to  himself,  "  Well,  it's  been  a  near  thing 
apparently,  but  it's  come  off.  Somebody  else  pays, 
and  I  win.  Whew  !  By  Jove,  but  this  is  a  streak 
of  luck !  " 

Other  officers  had  to  be  talked  with  first,  and 
it  was  late  that  night  before  he  could  decently 
call  away  for  another  quiet  stroll  in  the  desert 
that  subaltern  whom  he  had  trusted  with  a 
special  service. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  when  they  got  out  of  earshot 
of  the  lines,  "  are  you  going  to  marry  your  girl  ?  " 

"  If  you  please,  sir,"  said  the  subaltern. 

"  I'm  almost  sorry There,  man,  don't  look 

shocked.  You  had  your  orders,  and  you've  car 
ried  them  out.  Only,  I've  learned  a  thing  or  two 
since  that  I  didn't  know  at  the  time,  and  it  ap 
pears  that  we  owe  something  to  your  renegade, 
though  it's  quite  unlikely  he  intended  to  do  it  as 
a  kindness." 

"  You  mean  his  crumpling  up  that  Belgian  ex 
pedition  the  day  before  we  came  up  ?  Well,  he 
did  that  certainly,  sir,  and  it  would  never  have 
been  done  without  him,  and  I  suppose  if  they'd 


278  ATOMS   OF   EMPIRE 

taken  the  place  and  we  came  up  and  found  them 
sitting  down  in  possession,  it  would  have  been 
awkward." 

"  Devilish  awkward,  to  say  the  least  of  it." 

"  But  as  to  the  other  matter,  I  only  carried  out 
your  orders,  sir." 

"  Quite  so,  quite  so.  I  oughtn't  to  have  said 
what  I  did  just  now,  so  don't  get  annoyed  with 
me." 

"Well,  I  didn't  murder  the  ruffian,  or  any 
thing  like  that,  General.  He  wasn't  in  the  fight 
ing.  He  was  sort  of  looking  on  outside  one  of 
the  houses,  and  he  didn't  offer  to  raise  a  finger 
till  I  rushed  him.  He'd  a  revolver  in  his  holster, 
and  I  got  him  to  shoot  first,  and  then  I  potted 
back.  He  was  a  rank  bad  shot  —  and  I'm 
another ;  we  both  emptied  our  pistols ;  but  I 
dropped  him  with  the  last  cartridge.  There  was 
a  German  in  spectacles  in  the  hut  behind  him, 
looking  very  scared,  but  —  er  —  you  didn't  say 
anything  about  a  second  white  man,  sir." 

"  Didn't  know  there  was  one." 

"Well,  as  I'd  got  no  instructions,  and  I  con 
cluded  you  wouldn't  want  a  white  prisoner,  I 
just  let  him  run.  In  fact,  I  hadn't  got  my  pistol 
loaded,  and  he  did  run  without  consulting  my 
convenience.  Oh,  and  I  don't  know  whether  the 
Colonel  told  you  in  his  report,  but  from  some 
papers  which  were  left  about,  your  Irishman's 
name  seems  to  have  been  Moriarty.  A  little  red- 
haired  chap,  he  was." 


THE  RENEGADE  279 

"  Good  God  !  "  muttered  the  General,  "  I  won 
der  if  it  could  be  the  same." 

«  Er  —  I  beg  your  pardon,  sir." 

"  Nothing,"  said  the  elder  man ;  but  he  sighed, 
and  looked  out  towards  the  purple  horizon  of  the 
desert,  and  presently  he  murmured,  «  Poor  devil, 
poor,  poor  devil." 

The  subaltern  coughed  discreetly.  The  Gen 
eral  in  command  came  to  earth  again.  "  Well," 
he  said,  "  this  unfortunately  isn't  quite  a  thing  I 
can  recommend  you  for  the  D.S.O.  over,  although 
I'm  sure  you  deserve  it.  But  I'll  see  you  get 
your  company  all  right.  Go  back  to  camp  now 
and  tell  people  if  you  like.  I'm  going  to  stay 
and  walk  about  here  a  bit  longer  in  the  quiet. 
I've  a  lot  to  think  out." 

"  Wonder  if  the  old  Chief  knew  this  Moriarty 
person,"  the  subaltern  mused  as  he  walked  back 
towards  the  line  of  sentries.  "Funny  go  if  he 
did.  Well,  I've  got  a  jolly  letter  to  write  home 
to  the  little  girl,  anyway." 

He  pulled  a  photograph  out  of  the  breast  of 
his  tunic,  and  kissed  it  with  a  couple  of  hearty 
smacks,  and  then  went  on  his  way  to  the  camp, 
whistling. 


McTODD 


By 
C.  J.   CUTCLIFFE  HYNE 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THOMPSON'S  PROGRESS,"  "  THE  ADVENTURES  OF 
CAPTAIN  KETTLE,"  ETC.,  ETC. 


Cloth         1 2  mo         $1.50 


"The  adventures  recounted  are  exciting  enough  for  any  reader,  and 
McTodd's  slow  and  deliberate  humor  makes  them  all  the  more  enjoyable. 
It  is  a  good  story  of  the  sea,  and  McTodd  will  find  as  many  admirers  as 
'  Captain  Kettle.'  "  —  St.  Paul  Dispatch. 

"  Cutcliffe  Hyne  has  given  us  in  his  latest  book, '  McTodd,'  a  character 
as  interesting  as  his  famous  Captain  Kettle.  .  .  .  All  who  have  been  capti 
vated  by  the  adventures  of  Captain  Kettle  will  delight  in  McTodd." 

—  Massachusetts  Ploughman. 

"  It  is  full  of  incidents  and  experiences  of  a  lively  kind,  such  as  have  ere 
now  happened  to  real  live  people.  The  writer  has  constructed  a  well-knit 
narrative,  which  absorbs  the  reader's  attention,  and  not  one  of  the  twelve 
chapters  in  it  can  be  pronounced  dull."  —  Montreal  Star. 

"  No  sea  stories  of  recent  years  can  surpass  these  in  interest  and  power." 


The   Macmillan   Company 

66  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 


THOMPSON'S   PROGRESS 

By  C  ].  CUTCLIFFE  HYNE 
Author  of  "The  Adventures  of  Captain   Kettle,"  etc.,  etc. 

Cloth  i2mo  $1.50 


"The  book  will  find  many  readers,  for  there  is  plenty  of  go 
in  it,  and  whatever  the  author's  failings  may  be,  he  never  omits 
exciting  adventures."  —  The  Sun,  New  York. 

"New  characters  worth  knowing  are  rare  in  modern  fiction. 
Therefore,  when  a  unique,  entirely  human,  and  full-summed  indi 
vidual  is  given  over  to  our  intimacy  and  fondness,  we  think  of 
him  as  a  live  friend  and  read  him  up  from  birth  to  death.  .  .  . 
And  such  a  one  is  Thompson  of  'Thompson's  Progress.'  .  .  . 
The  book  is  delightful  throughout,  of  the  kind  of  humor  which 
makes  us  smile  continually.  '  Their  Mr.  Bent '  is  as  clever  a  bit 
of  writing  as  has  been  done  recently.  Thompson  will  be  re 
membered  and  cherished  for  many  days,  and  what  is  more,  it 
appeals  to  men."  —  Bookseller,  Newsdealer  &•»  Stationer. 

"  The  new  hero,  Thompson,  is  a  charming  fellow  as  a  lad  and 
pleasant  as  a  grown  man.  The  opening  chapter  in  the  green 
wood  is  delightful."  —  The  Sun. 

"  Thompson  the  lover  and  the  poacher  is  altogether  delightful. 
He  is  phenomenally,  but  not  incredibly,  pertinacious  in  both 
characters."  —  The  New  York  Tribune. 


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